Lies, Life, Love and School
by norabettyjones
Summary: 2015 Matilda thinks her mum's a muggle and Matilda has been going to Hogwarts without her mum knowing. Drama at school involves her hot best friend and that Slytherin boy who are both quidditch captains Please review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

A/N I'm not too good at maths but I think this is set in 2015

Chapter One

I never actually knew whether or not I was a half blood or a Muggle born. My father was killed while my mother was pregnant with me and my mother displayed no signs to me that she was a witch. I was very happy that the days where people went around torturing Muggle borns was over, because I had no idea whether or not I would have fallen into that category.

People like Harry Potter and Voldemort seemed the thing of stories, but all known to be true. That whole era had happened about ten years ago. He did have children that he would presumably send off to Hogwarts and I had done the math and in my sixth year his eldest would be starting his first year of school.

Teddy Lupin was in my house at Hogwarts, and all he seemed to do was chase all the good looking girls in the school. The only girl he kept on friendly terms with was Victorie who anyone could see had a massive crush on him, and Teddy was the only person who couldn't tell.

Sometimes Teddy would tell the stories of his Godfather and everyone in the common room would listen, even my best friend Tyler Martins. While a lot of the girls didn't mind Teddy Lupin chasing him, all the girls were chasing Tyler except me. I didn't want to chase Tyler, he was just my friend.

Tyler would often ask me if I was a Muggle born or not, trying to catch me off guard as if I would tell him the true answer, but I didn't know at all. His parents still remembered the terror of the days when most of the people in my year were born, his and everyone else's parents.

It was coming the last week of summer before the start of our fifth year at Hogwarts. This was the most nerve wrecking time for me; it was the time where I was paranoid that my mother would find out that I had been lying to her.

My mother hated anything to do with magic, she never read me fairy tale stories as a kid and never let me see movies with my friends if magic was involved at all. I thought it kind of ridiculous but her stern view of it made me never mention it in front of her. There was no such thing as magic.

When I was approaching my first year at secondary school, my mother was out, here friend had picked her up and taken her to a dance. My mother couldn't drive, she couldn't understand it one bit so her friend always had to pick her up. It was a rather hot night, and I was sitting in front of the television. We hadn't had one for very long, my mother hadn't a proper clue of what they were, but at my insistence we had got one. All the windows were open because of the heat when suddenly there was a sharp swishy noise and an owl flew into the house and perched itself on top of the television.

I couldn't scream, but I was staring at the thing wide eyed as it looked at me too. There was a letter tied to its leg and the owl held it out towards me. I had inched closer and closer to it when it seemed to get impatient and flew up and landed on my shoulder. I jumped then untied the letter and was so so surprised at the contents.

At first I thought someone was playing a joke of me and I thought of a kid at my school, but where the hell would he have gotten a trained owl from?

I tried talking to the owl. 'Um, it says, '_We await your owl,'_ I don't have one.'

It squawked and then flew into the kitchen and landed on a fresh piece of paper, not unlike the parchment I was holding.

'Oh, so can I give it to you?' The bird seemed to nod, and turn away like I was silly.

I grabbed a fountain pen on the desk; I had been learning to write with them recently. I figured that if this was a practical joke, I could pretend I was just playing a long, because, what if it were true? Some pretty strange things had happened to me as a child, like the time there was a food fight in the cafeteria, and I was wearing white so I really didn't want to get hit, but no matter how much Bobby Wilkins tried, no food touched me. And he had the best aim in the whole of school. There was also the time where we had fireworks one new year and I didn't want them to go off because I loved our neighbour's dog who was scared of the noise. We just saw the lights but didn't hear a thing.

So I wrote on the parchment quickly, the bird seeming to be a very impatient one. _We have received your letter, and Matilda will be arriving to school on the 1__st__ of September' _Other than that I had no idea what to right. The owl flew over to the newspaper that lay open, on it was a picture of a train and it ran its claw around the edge of the picture and I whispered to it, '_by train?'_ The owl tooted and so I assumed that was a yes. This all had to be true, how else could an owl understand me?

'_on the 1__st__ September by train. Yours sincerely, Helena Greystone.'_ I rolled up the letter and attached it to the owl and it flew off.

When my mother came home that evening I was sitting on the floor just thinking. I had no idea what I was doing but I dared not mention it to my mother. It was a school for witchcraft and wizardry, and my mother hated both those things.

I had no idea how to get to a place where I could buy all the things on the list but one afternoon I was in London with a few of my friends and I saw a man wearing robes and a pointed hat. I didn't say anything to my friends but I ditched them and followed the man. After some time the man seemed to realise that I was indeed following him and he stopped me.

'What do you want?' he said, gruffly.

'Um, I just wondered if you had heard of Minerva McGonagall.'

He nodded, 'who hasn't?' He went to turn around.

'So are you a wizard?' I asked, brightening and following still after him.

'What are you?' He asked.

'Well, I got a letter, from an owl about Hogwarts and that woman is the headmistress, and um, you're wearing a pointed hat and it's on the uniform list and I didn't know where to get it all,' I muttered.

The man came very close to me, peering at my face. 'You a Muggle?' he asked.

'A what?'

'Means you're not a witch or wizard.'

He looked at me for a moment. 'I know what to do. Follow me.'

I did what he said and he was always on streets that had a fair amount of people but I always followed him cautiously. It felt better before when he wasn't leading me anywhere. We wandered for about twenty minutes and then we stopped outside a bar or café. 'Do you see that?' he said gruffly.

'What, the Leaky Cauldron?' I asked, sceptical.

'So you must be a Muggle born. Come on in.'

'But am I allowed? It looks like it's for older people.' I said, a little unsure.

'Oh come on, it's not as dangerous as it used to be.'

I followed him some more. In the Leaky Cauldron there were more people dressed like him, things on the walls seemed to move but I thought it was a trick of the light as the place only seemed to be lit up by the flickering light of candles. He went out the back and on the way was greeted by a few people. We both came to a brick wall.

'Okay watch carefully, and with your wand, do this.' He proceeded to tap on the wall in some kind of pattern, and then the bricks fell back to reveal a street of people and what seemed like magic.

That day I was totally took my awe. The man watched me and said, 'you stand out like a sore thumb. Need to get rid of those Muggle clothes. Go to the bank, because you'll need some money, you can exchange some of the Muggle money there and then you can buy the things for school. I have to be off. Ask someone of you need help anywhere. Have fun at Hogwarts.' He gave a gruff sort of smile and I said thanks to him.

That afternoon I spent the time wandering about what was called Diagon Alley and it completely amazed me. My friends were worried sick by the time that I remembered them and hurried back. I told them I got lost. Already in my mind I was figuring out how to get the money to go to Hogwarts.

Now, about to begin my fifth year the process was the same. Internet banking was how things got done around here and my mother didn't understand computers one bit so I did it all. Her neighbour would help her pay the bills when I was at school, but other than that, I would do the banking, and I would transfer money into an account named St. Mary's school for girls, the school my mother thought I attended. In reality, the account was mine and I would go to the bank and get out some cash for the beginning of the year. The bank by now knew that I always did this and never turned an eyebrow when at the end of each holidays I'd get a lot of money in the account and then would spend it all. Some of the extra stuff ended up in an account in Gringotts, and I only really used the money for school related things.

I had to get a St. Mary's uniform and I would arrive at Kings Cross Station on the last day of August and then pretend to catch a train. That night I would stay in a room at the Leaky Cauldron where sometimes my friends would be staying too. I would always have to hide the Muggle uniform.

About two weeks before September 1st I would pretend to go to London with my friends, but I really went alone to buy all my stuff. I would end up having to buy some Muggle things so that my Mum thought I really went shopping. I had already done that for this year and I was worried, as always that I wouldn't be able to pull the next bit off again.

I was all ready to go for the last day of August, my mother was driving me to Kings Cross in the next couple of days. I knew that she paid hardly any attention to the details of things, and that I only got away with all of this because she had a lot of trouble with not just modern technology, but any technology and that she was so embarrassed by this that she never talked to anyone from the school she thought I went to, because she had no idea how to use a phone or send an email. Frankly, it was ridiculous, but I was so caught up in my scheme to not make it known to my mother that I went to Hogwarts each year that I didn't realise that my mother, pretending to be a Muggle, couldn't be anything other than a witch.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Two

I figured things out another night when my mother was out, having waited for her to leave the house. I wanted to find something in the attic, old belongings of my father. The postman had come the day before, just as my mother was heading outside and they had stopped to talk to each other. I could hear the whole conversation from my bedroom window and I was going to leave because it seemed that this postman was going to chat up my mother, but I stayed because I heard her say something.

'So do you have a husband or anything?' he asked.

'Oh, no, I used to, but he died before Matilda was born.'

'Your daughter?'

'Yeah. She's almost sixteen now,' said my mother. At least she was telling this man of my existence straight away, it wasn't like I was home enough for people to realise that I did exist.

'And how does she take it?' The postman asked. I didn't like him very much for asking, and it wasn't like my mum could give an accurate representation of how I did take it because my mother and I never talked about it.

'She never knew him, and rarely asks about him. I have some stuff in the attic that's his, but that's all. I think she's afraid to ask or something,' she said, shrugging. I rolled my eyes at this statement because the only reason I rarely asked about my father was because whenever I did, she tried to dodge the question.

My mother came up after the postman left and smiled at me. 'I can't believe you're going off to school again so soon. I'll really miss you.' I smiled back at her and felt a little bit guilty because she didn't know anything but as she left I remembered her saying to the postman _I have some stuff in the attic that's his._ I had never been in the attic so I didn't know this, and I knew that my mother would have told me about it if she had wanted me to see any of it. But it was a piece of my dad that I had never seen, that I might get to see.

So I waited for my mother to leave the house that night and I stole into the attic. Everything was covered in dust and it was dark and musty. You had to climb a ladder to get into the attic, one that folded up into the ceiling somehow. I scanned the dark room with my eyes and I saw several suitcases everywhere. I opened the one closest to me.

I smiled when I saw the contents. There were letters addressed to my mother from him and he always signed with his love. There were photos of him and of my mother, ones that didn't move, so maybe my Dad was a Muggle after all and I was a Muggle born. But perhaps my father hid the fact that he was a wizard from my mother just like I was hiding the fact that I was a witch.

After spending about an hour scanning the contents of that trunk, I decided to open another. I pulled out some black fabric, coated with dust so I threw it away from my and tried to see what was underneath it. There was another photo album, and in the hope of seeing more pictures of my father I opened it.

But the pictures were moving. I stared at it for a moment, blinking and confused. The photo I saw for the moment was of my mother laughing. I turned the page and there was Hogwarts, with my mother and her friends sitting in front of a tree, the castle in the background. I flicked through the album and saw moving pictures with the Gryffindor common room. All these pictures had my mother in them, and none of them had my dad. I tried to breathe as the truth rushed over me and the feeling of stupidity as I realised what this was.

I opened another trunk and I found some old books. _Hogwarts: A History, Standard Book of Spells Grade 3, _books that I had used but the difference was that these were covered in dust. In another trunk were potion ingredients that smelt really bad. There was my mother's Gryffindor tie and the rest of her uniform. Tears were streaming down my face by the time I found her wand. It was very different to mine, much shorter and had a lighter coloured wood but with that it was obvious that my mother didn't want to be a witch anymore, that she was hiding a part of herself in this attic.

I put everything back where I found it and traipsed back to my room. I remembered the photos of her. I looked almost exactly like here, with dark curls, hair blacker than black. I had the same blue eyes as my mother and the same creamy white skin. Mum looked older now, but the photos of her as a teenager at Hogwarts, if I didn't know, they could've been me.

The bliss of even seeing what my father looked out was tainted by the feeling of sadness and resentment towards my mother for not telling me about this secret part of herself. For making me too timid to approach her about it when I first got the letter from Hogwarts. I hated the fact that I was a lot like my mother than I had originally realised. She and I kept secrets from each other, and now that I knew she had some part in the magical world the fear to tell her about it was even greater, knowing that she decided to keep me from this at all.

I barely uttered two words to my mother before she took me to King's Cross. She kept on looking at me strangely, helped me to carry my luggage onto the bus and to the station.

'Matilda, I don't know what I did,' she said, 'but I love you and I hope you have a great year.' She had her hand on my shoulders and was looking down at me carefully.

I looked back at her and when I still didn't say anything she said, 'so you're finally proving the fact that you are a teenager.'

'Mum,' I said. 'What else would I be?'

She crinkled her nose. 'My sweet little girl. I remember when we were walking down to the park and you saw a poor bird with what seemed like a broken wing. You wanted to take it home and nurse it.'

I also remembered that when she had gone to the toilet I had rushed over to it, held it in my hands and then its wing seemed all better and it flew away. It was like magic, so I didn't breathe a word of it to my mother.

'And you always seem to get very good grades, I thought that was impossible for a teenager,' she said.

'Only for a teenager with the name Helena Greystone,' I said.

'Hey, don't be cheeky with me,' she said, but she was smiling.

It was hard figuring out what to tell my Mum about my grades because she was always asking about them. I looked online to see that classes that they taught Muggle children and I tried to make the subjects I took match theirs and if I got an Outstanding I would say that I got an A. By know I knew my mother didn't have any clue how the British education system worked and took my word for it if it was good or not.

'You know, honey, I was talking to Marianne from work and she said that she went to her son's prize giving and I wondered if you had anything similar,' she asked me.

'Well,' I said, trying to make a lie up on the spot. 'There is a prize giving at St. Mary's, but it's only for the students in their last year, which is why you haven't heard anything of it.'

'There's always a reason for everything, isn't there?' Mum asked me with a smile. She leant down and kissed the top of my head. 'Well, I best be off. I have a meeting to get to.'

'Bye Mum.'

'Have fun, Matilda. I sure did when I was fifteen.'

I waited for her to leave, and as soon as she did I went to a nearby bathroom and changed out of the uniform and into some Muggle clothing. The Leaky Cauldron wasn't too far away, and I hoped that Tyler or someone was there that I could talk to. There was a drizzle of rain and it mirrored exactly the way I was feeling.

Now that the hard part was over, normally I could look forward to another term at Hogwarts, but my mother made that impossible. Why would my mother want to not be a witch? It was really wonderful, was magic. It doesn't take long for someone raised as a Muggle to realise just how much.

I got to the Leaky Cauldron and there was one room left, I took it, having no choice. It was dark and smelt of mould so I spent the least amount of time there that I could, and wandered about Diagon Alley looking at the owls.

I couldn't have an owl; it's not a Muggle thing so it was silly to even want. But I had always loved them, ever since that one came to my house about five years ago. I thought that they were highly intelligent animals and it would've been nice to keep in touch with Tyler over the summer.

'Matilda!' I heard a voice yell from down the street.

I turned around, and as soon as I saw Tyler my face broke out in a grin. He held his arms out wide as he approached me and I came to hug him. 'Hey Tyler, God I missed you.' I stood in front of him, smiling.

'Okay, I know I'm wonderful and all, but what happened? Usually your greeting is something more cheerful.' He looked at me with concern, but it was hard for him to keep a straight face, it was very obvious he wanted to tell me something.

Tyler was very tall, broad shouldered and very good looking. He had sand blonde hair, blue eyes and he was very charming. I swear that I was the only person his charm didn't work on, having known him for so long. I was well aware of how attractive he was but I knew that I didn't like him that way, that he didn't like me that way and that we were just very good friends. He told me things that he would never tell someone he fancied. And we made fun of each other, were honest and he respected it when I was having a crap day and I did when he was.

'I'm fine,' I said. He didn't believe me but he left it, probably reminding himself to talk to me about it later.

'I wish I saw you in the holidays,' he said. 'I have so much to tell you.' He narrowed his eyes at me, 'I wish you would let me send you an owl, that way I could keep in touch with you.'

I raised my eyebrows. 'Why don't I teach you how to send an e-mail? I'll set up an account for you, and all you have to do is go to a Muggle library-'

'And go on one of those computer things?' Tyler looked sceptical.

'At least you know what a computer is.'

'You know, the only reason I took Muggle Studies is so that I could understand half the things you go on about sometimes.' He looked a little annoyed by this fact, because Muggle Studies wasn't a class he exactly enjoyed. I took it with him and I knew that the only reason he didn't enjoy it was that I knew a fair bit about Muggles and he didn't, so I did better than him and got better grades. He was just annoyed that I didn't have to work as hard as he did in that class and I teased him endlessly about it.

We carried on walking down the street. 'So what do you have to tell me?' I asked him,

'Well, first, you should've told me that your mail was coming to me in the holidays. It really confused me when I got two book lists, instead of one,' he looked at me. 'How did you even know what stuff to get? You can't have gotten a book list.'

'Oh, I asked Head of House to give me the list before I left last year.'

'And you and I have to go to all this trouble just because your mother has ophidiophobia?'

I laughed, 'no, that's something different. That's fear of snakes. Mum has ornithophobia. '

'Fear of birds?'

I nodded. This in fact, was only half true. I had needed to come up with an excuse to stop the school sending my mother letters by owl. It might not be like the first time when she was out and then she would realise that I had been going to Hogwarts. My mother once had told me a story about how she was out with her friends one night and she got attacked by some birds because she touched the birds nest.

Our head of house only believed me because I used the correct technical term, and I pointed out that I wasn't doing this to avoid letters being sent home if I was out of line because I had such an impeccable record at Hogwarts. I was careful of this so that there was never any reason for a letter to go home and reveal where I actually was. So my mail was sent to Tyler's house and if we managed to meet up over the break he would give me the letters.

'Okay,' Tyler said. 'Well, first-' he was interrupted by a group of giggling girls.

'Hey Tyler,' they said.

He smiled and waved over at them, and I recognised them as students from the year below. They giggled and turned away.

'You know, because it's you that would come under flirting,' I said.

'Matilda,' Tyler complained. 'I am not a ladies man, okay?'

'You had seven girlfriends last year,' I said.

'It's not my fault that I'm good looking or popular. And it was only four.' He looked at me sternly, daring me to contradict him.

'This is taking too long,' he frowned. 'I was going to tell a little story I had rehearsed too.'

'A story? You only do that when you want to show off,' I said.

We had stopped walking and were just standing in the middle of the crowded street. Tyler grinned.

'I am Quidditch captain.'

A smile quivered on my lips, 'seriously? No joke?'

'Seriously.'

I grinned, 'that's so good Tyler!' I said, hugging him. He was grinning too and I was super excited for him. 'Do you know who the other captains are? Oh you are so going to kick butt, and you can get rid of Matthews and find someone better as keeper, oh I can't wait.'

'Trust me, I have thought of all those things,' he grinned.

'This is my very very proud of you face,' I told him.

He laughed, 'I recognise it. You wore it when I when I finished that essay the day it got set. Oh, god, I'm never doing that again.'

'You should try to, I mean, it's OWL's this year.'

'You nervous for them?' He asked me.

'Do you have to even ask?'

Tyler smiled and we headed our way down to the Leaky Cauldron. He was staying there too, but with his parents before we had to be at King's Cross Station.

'There is one more important thing,' he said.

'What is it?'

'Um, well, you should know that over the years, I have always opened your mail from the school,' Tyler told me a little bit sheepishly.

'Tyler? I kind of guessed that. You never gave me the letters in sealed envelopes, they were always open.'

'Right.' He smiled, and shook his head slightly. 'Well, anyway, I opened yours again, and this is yours.' He held out a bright prefects badge and I just stared at it. I had totally forgotten any possibility of being a prefect and so I was very shocked.

'You okay, Matilda?' he asked, looking a bit worried.

I turned my gaze to him, and peered at him.

'What?' he asked.

'Is this a joke?'

Tyler rolled his eyes when he heard this. 'No, okay Matilda? You are a prefect. Here's your letter.' He took my hand because I was still staring at him suspiciously, and he put the letter in it.

'Read it, and then you can squeal with delight tomorrow. Mum wants me back in a couple of minutes, so I got to go.' Tyler smiled at me. 'I missed you too Matilda, though I didn't when we were playing Quidditch, you are terrible at that game.'

I grinned. 'See you.' And I headed off towards my room to read the letter.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Three

I met up with Tyler in the morning to travel to the station. Now that he had mentioned the best of his news he wanted to know why I didn't look very cheerful. I made up some lie that he didn't believe for a second but I was grateful that he accepted that I didn't want to talk about it just yet.

'This is exactly like the time you had that crush on Jerry Matthews. You didn't want to tell me because you knew I'd make fun of you,' he shrugged. 'But you told me eventually.'

We were at the station and Tyler was counting his coins while we were walking, and in his mind I knew he was consulting himself on what to get from the trolley.

'Do you ever stop thinking about food?' I asked him.

Tyler grinned and looked up at me. 'Yes. In fact, I forgot to eat the day I found out about being captain.'

'Too busy screaming it out to the whole world,' I said to him. I could just imagine Tyler going up to everyone he knew and announcing it, and then announcing it again until they gave him the right reaction.

'Not the whole world,' he said, pointing a finger at me. A couple of his coins fell to the ground. 'You are in the world and you didn't know till yesterday. I know you are complete crap at Quidditch, but you know the game well. What I really need you to do is come to the practices, and take notes.'

'Take notes?' I sounded skeptical.

'Yeah, sure. Isn't that what you're good at?' he asked me, laughing at me silently as he picked up the coins. 'So you're sure you're okay? Because I don't believe you.'

'For now, very sure. And about Jerry Matthews, I had no crush on him whatsoever,' I looked at him sternly, 'you made that up.'

Tyler just rolled his eyes and looked away, stuffing his coins into his pocket. We had arrived at the barrier to platform nine and three quarters and we saw a few of our friends passing through it, unnoticed. Greta Simmons caught our eyes and waved. Tyler gave her a smile and winked at her.

'So is that who you're going to chase this year?' I asked Tyler. 'Greta Simmons?'

'What? She's hot,' Tyler gave me the look he always does when I comment on his many girlfriends. Slightly annoyed, but slightly amused. 'Besides, I never do the chasing as you call it. So, do you want to go through the barrier first?'

'Okay, then.'

'Good luck,' he said, smirking.

I glared at him. Whenever we went through the barrier he would always bring up the way we met, and his smirk was him doing just that. I had had no idea how to get through, I had heard from someone in Diagon Alley about platform nine and three quarters, and it looked as though it didn't exist. I dared not ask about it because I knew I'd get frowned upon by one of the security men. By now I was sure the place existed after the bricks in the wall all went away at the Leaky Cauldron. It was almost eleven and I was freaking out a little bit, and deliberated trying to tap the wall between platforms nine and ten with my wand. I had wandered over to the barrier, and then Tyler appeared, out of the wall and with a yell had knocked me backwards.

'Sorry, sorry,' he had muttered. 'Please don't make a scene,' he said because I had shrieked and was backing away from him with a confrontational look on my face.

'How did you do that?' I said sharply.

'Do what?' he said, getting up and brushing the dirt off his clothes.

'Come out of the wall like a crazy person,' I said with a hard tone.

'Well I was in a rush,' he said defensively. He looked at his watch and he said to me, 'I'll be two seconds, we have about eight minutes.'

He ran off, having forgotten something and I waited opposite the barrier, trying to ignore the stern looks other people were giving me for causing a racket. I didn't have to wait very long, and there was Tyler running back. 'Okay, come on,' he said, and grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the wall.

'You're just going to drag me through the wall?' I asked with annoyed disbelief.

'Yeah,' he said, looking back at me. 'And you kind of have to do it discreetly,' he said in a slow voice. 'There are Muggles everywhere.' I felt a little bit better after he used that word, and I composed myself a little bit.

'You are going to Hogwarts aren't you?'

'Yes.' Now I was getting defensive.

He looked a little impatient and decided to push me through the wall. I gave a small scream and then I found myself at another platform, with a scarlet train occupying most of the space. Again, I was looking a little amazed at the sight and then Tyler came through the door with all of my stuff.

'Come on,' he said, 'or we're going to miss the train.'

After that point, we found a compartment and we became friends, almost inseparable. It was only last year and a little in our third year where Tyler became more interested in girls, and he got very tall quite fast and it was deemed he was the best looking in our year. After that, he spent more time with girls he fancied and less time with me. I could always tell that some of the time, Tyler did actually want to spend it with me, but his admirers didn't like me and must have felt threatened by me because I was his best girl friend.

I didn't mind too much because it wasn't for all the time and he never asked me to go away. It was obvious that that was what was needed for those girls to be happy and for Tyler not to feel uncomfortable.

I traveled through the barrier, Tyler right behind me. As soon as we got through, we saw a flood of people that we knew and a bunch of kids who were obviously first years who mirrored the look I had when I first stepped foot and this platform. Mothers and fathers were giving last minute advice, tips, and making sure their kids had everything.

'Mum,' I heard one girl say, 'just send it to me by owl if I've forgotten something, I have to go catch the train.' It looked as though she wanted to get away from the high amounts of affection parents seemed to always give while saying goodbye.

Tyler overheard too and he said, 'what happens if you forget something? It's not like your Mum can just send it back.'

'I don't forget anything.'

'Of course not,' he said under his breath. 'So you have prefect stuff, don't you?'

I nodded. 'Save me a seat with you. Not a compartment filled with loads of girls who hate me, okay?'

Tyler smiled and shook his head. 'Okay. I'll sit with the guys. Even though you are my best friend Matilda, I do have male friends.'

'God, I know. I wish some of them noticed me as girl, you know? They treat me like a guy because you don't treat me like a girl,' I said, sighing.

'Sorry,' he grinned, helping me out my bags on the train. 'But I don't treat you like a guy either, you'll be pleased know.'

I shook my head and laughed at this and out my luggage where they were supposed to go. I had no one to wave to outside so I went straight to the prefects carriage. Only one other person was there, the other fifth year prefect for Gryffindor, Lucas Michelson. I was glad that I had to do prefect duties with him and not with Henry Burton. That guy had had this crush on me since second year and had tried numerous times to get me to go out with him. He was rather short, had ginger hair and masses of freckles. Sometimes he would come to the library while I was studying and just sit opposite me, not doing any work but would just stare. After a while I stopped being nice to him and I let Tyler make fun of him a little bit in an effort to get him to stop. My annoyance at Henry greatly amused Tyler who just told me to get a boyfriend so he'd leave me alone. Somehow I didn't think that it would be that simple.

'Hello Matilda,' said Lucas, with a friendly smile.

'Hey Lucas, how was your summer?'

'Pretty good,' he said. Lucas was tall, had a nice face and was pleasant for me to be around. He was one of Tyler's friends, and the one I was most comfortable being around because he didn't treat me like another dude off the Quidditch team or something like the rest of them did, even though he was on the Quidditch team. Out of all the fifth year boys in Gryffindor there was Tyler, Lucas and Ben Howard who were on the team and they were all very good. Ben treated me like a guy friend, fist bumping me and even calling me dude. He was another one of the good looking folk who didn't fancy me because they thought me a friend.

I had given up on all the guys in Gryffindor, because that was all they saw me as, a dude, because they saw me hanging out with Tyler and his friends all the time and treated me the same as they did.

I sighed out loud and Lucas asked me if I was okay.

I smiled, 'yeah, just thinking about my single status.'

He shook his head but he was smiling, 'I swear that's all that girls think about.'

'It's not,' I assured him. 'I'm going to go change into my robes before everyone else comes here.'

'That's a good idea,' he agreed.

I went off to find my things and got changed. As I put my Muggle clothes back in my bag, I saw my St. Mary's uniform and wondered how my mother could believe I even went there. I stowed my wand in my pocket and headed out, not looking where I was going and so I bumped into someone else.

I was brought back to reality as I stumbled over, but someone held me steady by the arms.

'Oh, sorry,' I muttered, and then I looked up. I had to look up to see him because he was just as tall Tyler, had just as broad shoulders and was just as good looking, if not, more. But it was Hunter Andrews, a sixth year Slytherin.

'Um, hi,' I said, a little nervous.

He gave a small smile and let go of my arms, 'you okay? It seemed like you were lost in your own thoughts.'

'They were okay thoughts,' I said, 'so, I'm good.' I was nodding, trying to convince him that I was fine. He was someone that I didn't want to know that there was something wrong. He was a Slytherin, and he was also a very good looking Slytherin who had the most grey eyes and messy jet black hair.

'Okay then,' Hunter said. 'I'll see you around then Matilda.'

He moved around me headed down the other end of the train. My eyes followed him until he was gone and I realised how stupid I was being and quickly headed over to where the rest of the prefects were.

We were told the passwords of our common rooms and other announcements. My mind kept on wandering to my meeting with Hunter and more than once Lucas waved his hand under my face to get my attention. Again, I told myself that I was being silly. I couldn't like a Slytherin even though he was rather mysterious and what could I say, hot.

I patrolled down the corridors of the train, and then found the carriage that Tyler was in. There with him was Ben Howard, Jeff Waters in the year above us who was also in the Quidditch team last year as seeker and two girls squashed together on the seat next to Jeff, who was the skinniest out of Ben and Tyler so they all could fit on the same seat. The girls were Greta and April Skiers who were both obviously checking out Tyler and Ben with greedy eyes. They both glared at me when I opened the door and stuck my head in.

'Matilda!' said Tyler, who grinned when he saw me. 'I did save a seat for you, but these girls came in anyway.' He looked as though he didn't mind.

'Right,' I said. I looked over at Greta and April who were carefully avoiding my gaze. It didn't look as though they were going to move.

I said hello to Ben and Jeff and tried to assure Tyler that it was alright that I didn't sit with him. He did look a bit guilty as I left and I went off to find the compartment that had the rest of my friends. It pained me a little to think that all my friends were the guys off the Quidditch team, and other than Lucas they were all sitting with Tyler and those two girls I didn't like very much. The other person on the team was Jerry Matthews who last year had left too, and so I went past carriages until I found one with some girls in my year that I shared the dormitory with.

Greta, unfortunately and April were two of these girls, the other two were Rose and Alicia who were very tight nit. I didn't sit right with either pair, but at least Rose and Alicia were nice to me. I found the compartment that they were sitting in and after taking a breath, I pulled open the door.

Rose smiled when she saw me, 'oh, hey Matilda, how was your summer?'

'Alright, I suppose. I stayed at home the whole time and didn't get to see anyone. What about you?' I asked.

'It was good.'

'If you haven't seen Tyler and the rest of your guy friends, why aren't you sitting with them?' Alicia asked, a little bit resentful because I did hang out with so many guys. She had the straightest hair I had ever seen, and her brown hair went well past her shoulders. Her face was rather pale, but not so much as mine and even though she was nice and polite to me, some of the time she came across as cold.

Rose was always bright and friendly though; she had curly red hair and rosy cheeks and always was friendly to everyone. She gave Alicia a stern look in response to her cold tone towards me.

'Greta and April stole my seat, may I sit with you?' I asked.

Rose nodded almost straight away and said of course. Now it was only just the three of us in the carriage. Rose and I made polite conversation for a long while, trying to avoid Alicia's steely gaze. She had seemed to have enough if it and claimed to want to find the trolley.

Rose gave me a small smile. 'Don't worry about Alicia. She's just broken up with Jeff, and she's a little upset.'

'Oh, I didn't see that anything was wrong on Jeff's side,' I said.

'I think that's why she's a little upset, too. You'll have to forgive her.'

'Then why is she so mad at me?' I asked. 'Have I done something?'

Rose laughed quietly and shook her head. 'Oh, no, no. It's just that she's a little jealous of you.'

'Why?' I asked curiously. I didn't think that I had anything to be jealous about.

'Um,' she looked a little embarrassed. 'It's because you hang out with so many guys. And you kind of hang out with all the, you know, nice looking ones.'

'That's because I hang out with Tyler, and he hangs out with the Quidditch team, which has all the buff guys, and so of course anyone would think they're all hot,' I smiled, shaking my head. 'What, she thinks that they all like me or something, 'cause I'm always hanging out with them?'

'Something like that,' she muttered.

Alicia came back into the compartment at this point and she saw the awkward look and Rose's face, and the smirk on mine that I refused to hide. She sat down with her head tilted a little higher than usual and with a chocolate frog in her hand.

'Is that all you got?' I asked.

'I'm watching my figure,' she said.

'But your figure is fine,' I was a little confused.

'Well, some of us can't impress boys just like that,' she said, with a sniff.

I had to laugh at that. 'Alicia, I know I hang out with all those _hot_ guys all the time. But they don't see me as a girl at all. I'm like a guy who has long hair to them and who doesn't think their stink jokes are very funny. You know what Ben Howard calls me? Dude, just like he calls the rest of them. I'll only ever be a friend for all of them.'

'But you're really pretty,' said Alicia.

'Not to them.'

This seemed to make her happier, and as I stopped thinking that her reaction to all this was quite funny I got a little sad because I wasn't acknowledged as a girl. I would've liked it if someone like Ben or Jeff would ask me out, but they wouldn't have even thought of it. The other guys around the school saw how they treated me and took their lead and treated me that way too.

The train finally arrived at Hogwarts, the cold night air fresh against our skin.

I was just about to go off and find Tyler, hoping that I could at least be in the same carriage as him when Rose grabbed my arm, 'Hey, Matilda?' she asked.

I looked at her, 'yeah?'

'I know you hang out with all those Quidditch guys and I was wondering if you thought I stood a chance,' she said, looking at the floor and blushing.

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'I mean, you know, if I tried out for the Quidditch team this year.'

I smiled, 'why not? That sounds like a great idea.'

'Why not?' said Rose. 'There were only two girls on the team last year and they've all left, now it's just the guys.'

'I think it'll be good them having another girl around them,' I said, almost chuckling. 'And seriously, your chances are no different just because you're a girl. They still need three more players now that it's only Tyler, Jeff, Ben and Lucas. You've got quite a shot.'

Her face burst into a smile when I said this, 'thanks Matilda. Find out from Tyler when try outs are, I've heard he's captain. Will you be there?'

'Yes,' I said. 'But not trying out.'

She grinned at that. 'See you Matilda.'


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Four

I found Tyler and we grabbed a carriage together, thankfully without Greta or April. Ben and Jeff joined us as well as a couple of shy third year Ravenclaw girls. I could see that they were intimidated by how the good looking stars of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who did take up quite a bit of space, were sitting with them.

Tyler smiled at them as we climbed on and I saw them blush. I understood their embarrassment and I tried to involve them in the conversation, but they would only just mutter answers, exchange looks with each other and stay quiet.

Ben gave me a look, as if to say, why did we get on with them? I mouthed to him that I'd tell him later. The real reason was so that Greta and April wouldn't be able to fit on the carriage, but I didn't dare mention that in front of Tyler because I didn't want to appear as the jealous best friend.

'So who did you end up sitting with on the train?' asked Tyler.

'With Rose and Alicia,' I was looking at Jeff and I saw him freeze.

Ben and Tyler noticed this too and they were confused. 'Hey! What's with you?' asked Ben.

Jeff looked at me, trying to figure out if I knew. I smiled at him, and he scowled at me.

'Do you know?' Tyler asked me. I gave a small shrug and he snorted. 'God, Matilda, you are the worst liar I have ever met.'

'Hey!' I said, hitting him on the arm. He grinned at me, and then turned back to Jeff who was looking away, a little annoyed.

'So what'd up man? Is it Alicia? Did you have a fight?' asked Tyler.

'Come on Jeff,' I said. 'You tell them or I will.'

Jeff shot me an annoyed look. 'I suppose,' he muttered, 'it is best if I say it.'

'Exactly,' I said, giving him a smile. The two girls were looking away awkwardly.

'I broke up with her last week,' he sighed, 'in Diagon Alley.'

Ben and Tyler exchanged looks of surprise and the Ben clapped Jeff on the back so hard it made him jump. 'Well, we're here for you buddy,' he said and then he got some sweets out of his pocket, stuffed half of it in Jeff's hand and then the rest in his mouth.

'Oh, honestly,' I said, 'we're having a feast soon; you can fill up your stomachs then. Besides, food isn't always the answer to everything.'

Every guy in the carriage ignored me but one of the Ravenclaw girls smiled.

'How come you knew anyway?' Tyler asked me, while raising an eyebrow.

I hesitated. Jeff looked at me, a little curious. I wasn't on the best terms with Alicia so they would've been surprised if she told me.

'Alicia was being all bitter, and then Rose told me why. Apparently, you didn't seem all too upset about it either,' I said to Jeff.

'I kind of didn't have the chance to get all emotional in front of her! She just stormed away,' he said all defensively, 'and then I got a little upset about it at home, so other people couldn't watch me, and then I resorted to eating lots of food,' he finished with a meaningful look in my direction. Ben and Tyler laughed.

'Well dude,' said Ben, 'plenty of other hot girls in this school. You could even go out with Matilda,' he said mischievously. Jeff laughed and I shot a death glare at Ben who leant back, folded his arms and continued to grin.

'So why did you hide it?' asked Tyler, while Jeff sighed, it clear that he obviously wanted the subject left alone.

Tyler didn't let up though and Jeff said a little unwillingly, 'I don't know, it's not like it's something to proclaim to the whole world.'

'But to your friends?' I said.

He just shrugged.

'I guess we all have something to hide,' I muttered. Tyler looked at me questioningly but I shoved it aside. I wasn't ready to talk about my mother, especially since it was more complicated than I ever thought it would be when I first starting keeping secrets from her.

The carriage pulled up to the castle gates and as I always did, I looked up at the castle in awe. Its marvellous size never failed to amaze me even though I had been living in it for the past four years. Tyler smirked at me when he saw me does this again for the fifth time.

'You'd think she'd get used to it by now,' said Tyler.

Ben grinned and laughed in my face. 'God, I can't wait for the feast.'

I didn't say anything because I was getting a little hungry and then in the warmth of the Great Hall I wished that we didn't have to bother with the sorting so that we could just eat. Some of the students here knew of the one's getting sorted because they were friends little sisters or brothers, but I knew no one. I just wanted to know if the Gryffindor first years were going to cause me any trouble as prefect. I ended up judging them based on their looks, but I knew that even the prettiest one there or the shyest one could be the most sneaky and cunning of the lot.

Professor McGonagall stood up and her face looked tired but still as severe as I had ever seen it. I had heard that she hadn't wanted to be headmistress but there was no one else for the job. Poor Gryffindor never had a head of house for long, in the past four years we had had three professors so no one really knew us all that well. People like Tyler could put on charming smiles and get away with anything because they didn't know him well enough to know that he was guilty. It helped that Tyler had a good heart and that he would never intentionally hurt somebody.

'So,' said Tyler. 'Professor Greenhorn isn't at the table.'

I groaned. 'So we have another head of house?'

'Looks like it.'

'How do they even choose the prefects or Quidditch captain?' I asked him, 'surely the head of house decides, they ought to know us best. But ours doesn't.'

'Why does it matter now?' Tyler asked me, 'I got captain, which is what I wanted.'

'And you're only in fifth year.'

He grinned, 'thanks. And then you got prefect without Henry Burton so you should be happy.'

I glanced at Henry who was sitting a few seats down the table. He seemed to be looking at us and trying to hear our conversation but for some reason I don't think he could. The chatter in the Great Hall was too loud and then he didn't look very hurt as he usually did when Tyler insulted him even in the smallest way.

Tyler looked away awkwardly. 'So you have to show those little kids to our common room? Hey, what's the password? You should know.'

I told him and he looked pretty pleased that he didn't have to go looking for a prefect to find the password like we had to last year. For some reason we had stuck behind, I think to watch Ben ask out this Ravenclaw, and every Gryffindor who knew the password were already in the common room. I would've been annoyed if that girl had said no, but thankfully it was a yes and Ben did actually get something out of the heinous waiting. That relationship only lasted two months and Ben didn't really care.

Professor McGonagall was eyeing our table, having been the last to settle down before she began.

'Welcome, students to another year at Hogwarts. We'll have the sorting and then after the feast we'll have a few announcements.' She nodded towards Madam Hooch who was reading out names for the sorting hat this year.

I waited as politely as I could for the sorting to end, but as it drew to a close Tyler and especially Ben got more impatient than ever and I had to keep glaring at them to shut up. I wanted to know what little minxes would be in our house.

I had often wondered why I was placed in Gryffindor because I wasn't particularly brave or courageous. I mean, I was lying to my mother to get here and I was keeping the fact that I shouldn't be here from everyone. I had to be somewhat clever to get it done, figure out how to get money for books and school things and to me it just didn't seem like I possessed many Gryffindor traits.

I sighed.

Tyler shoved my arm, 'what's up with you Matilda,' he whispered. 'Usually you'll be cracking jokes about something.' I looked up and saw the concern in his eyes.

'Not now, Tyler,' I said.

'I'm still going to be your best friend, right?'

I laughed at the same time as everyone applauded loudly for the last first year so it wasn't obvious.

'Don't be daft. Of course we're still going to be best friends.'

He smiled, 'good. And please don't confiscate things from me because you're a prefect and all. I wouldn't like that very much.'

'Do your homework and I won't.'

He seemed to scowl and smile at the same time. 'I think the teachers are going to be less forgiving if we hand things in late or not all so I'll be doing all-nighters with you, don't worry.'

'We should really try and avoid that, you know.'

He grinned. 'I know.'

And the feast erupted in front of us. Tyler and Ben eyed it greedily and took whatever they could. I wasn't stupid and took as much as I knew I could eat. They barely said two words while they were eating but the whole table burst out laughing when we saw Hagrid spill his cup of pumpkin juice all over Professor Longbottom's food in an act of clumsiness. Those two professors were friends and I knew that Hagrid had taught Neville Longbottom at one point and that Professor Longbottom was friends with Harry Potter and had been there at the Great Battle of Hogwarts.

Ever since everything had happened then, there had been talk about an updated version of Hogwarts: A History to include all the things that took place when Harry Potter was at school.

As soon as Ben had finished eating he sighed and then the plates were clear and Professor McGonagall was ready to speak.

'I hope you students will all enjoy the year ahead. Congratulations to the houses new additions, senior students I hope you make the new students welcome and show them to their classes. Again, Mr Flitch wants to make sure everyone knows the full list of banned items, not knowing is not an excuse and points will be taken from houses and detentions may be given.' She eyed the whole hall sternly.

'You know,' whispered Tyler to everyone around us, 'I think the only person other than Filch who knows that whole list is Matilda.' They all laughed in silent giggles while I glared at Tyler which just caused him to smirk.

I continued to listen to Professor McGonagall. 'Again, the Forbidden Forest, is, indeed, _forbidden,_ hence the name. Senior students should do well to remember this.'

I made a pointed look towards Ben and Jeff. Ben looked unashamed and Jeff cringed a little.

'Professor Greenhorn had retired, and we are still yet to find a replacement for head of house to Gryffindor.' The whole house groaned.

'How stupid,' muttered Tyler.

'This is because none of our current teaching stuff is willing to step up to the role, even with the increase in pay.' McGonagall narrowed her eyes at the staff and the students giggled. Professor Longbottom looked a little ashamed of himself and a little bit guilty, but I knew the whole house would rather no one than him as head of house. The only thing he paid attention to was his class and he was good at it, but not good at much else except being a nice person.

'So in the meantime,' continued McGonagall, 'I will be acting in that position as well as Headmistress.' She sighed, 'so please, Gryffindors, don't get in trouble I really don't have the time for it.' She addressed the rest of the school. 'You all know that I am fair, and even though I will be the head of house, as Headmistress I am still impartial as to who will win the house cup.'

'I'd only believe that out of her lips,' I whispered.

Tyler nodded. 'Anyone else, I'd laugh in their face.'

'That's all. Oh, but taking Professor Greenhorn's place is Professor Jones to teach Muggle Studies. Classes start tomorrow, you'll be getting your timetables at breakfast tomorrow,' she tried to smile, but seemed to pissed off at the teachers for making her take two jobs that it didn't really work out so well. 'Goodnight, everyone,' she said and turned back towards the staff table.

'I wonder how much it will take McGonagall to go round the bend. Minding a house and a school? Seems like too much,' said Ben. After a second a devilish smile appeared on his face.

'Oh, no,' I said, pointing a finger at him, 'you are not going to make this year hell for her.'

'Oh come on, Matilda. Have a little fun,' he said.

'That shouldn't really be your idea of fun,' I said, sighing.

He just grinned at me.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and there was Lucas. 'Let's go and show the first years,' he said.

I nodded and left. 'See you guys,' I said.

'Bye,' said Tyler.

Ben just rolled his eyes at me a waved me off. I vaguely heard him say as I left, 'it looks like Matilda's not going to be as much fun this year.' I didn't get to hear Tyler's reply but lead the first years up to the Fat Lady who had tried a new look of wearing a pineapple on her head.

If this was last year, I would've laughed. Maybe when I got some sleep, or got used to being at Hogwarts I wouldn't feel so grim and maybe I would lose the guilt I felt by being here.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Five

I saw Hunter after breakfast the next morning, I had History of Magic first but I had forgotten one of the textbooks, or deliberately left it behind because it was so heavy and I wasn't sure I'd even need it. We bumped into each other in the Entrance Way and he had to hold me by the arms again to make sure I hadn't lost balance.

I had had lots of time to reflect over that time on the train and had come to the conclusion that Hunter happened to be surprisingly nice for a Slytherin. Still trying to regain my balance, I looked up into his grey eyes, and at his face which had a small smile written on his lips. Suddenly, I was very aware of how close his face was to mine. His features were very distinguished but soft somehow, in a way where they weren't intimidating but enough to make any girl sigh. And I felt like sighing, but I stepped back, away from him so I wouldn't do anything embarrassing.

His eyes were watching me, and I had to look away, already sure I had made I fool out of myself.

'Sorry,' I said. 'I've really got to watch where I'm going.'

'Lost in thought again?'

I smiled, 'no, just being a bit too careless, I suppose. I didn't think anyone would be about.'

Hunter smiled too, 'I forgot one of my textbooks.' He held it up.

'Me too. But I don't normally do that,' I said a little too quickly.

One corner of his lips went up, he was trying not to smile at what I said, and I had no idea why he thought it was funny.

I studied him for a moment; with an eyebrow raised he refused to say anything.

'What?' I asked.

'Nothing,' he said quickly.

'Oh. Well, I got to go.'

He nodded and I went past him, my shoulder brushing his when I walked by. I got a whiff of him and I wanted to turn back, to just smell him again. I got to the bottom of the staircase and turned to face his direction, but he had already entered the Great Hall.

I was surprised at myself; I had never paid so much attention to a single guy even the ones I thought I maybe liked. Last year when Tyler was busy with his numerous girlfriends I had tried to create a crush on Ben, but after a week of trying to like him or after trying to get a glimpse of his muscles at lunch when he had taken off his robes and just had his shirt, tie and trousers on I got a little bored of it. After scrutinizing him I saw more that I didn't like than did, so I went back to overlooking his casual stupidity to everything even though he was quite good looking by a lot of girls' standards. I had noticed though that when we were around other girls, I liked him a bit better, he tried to act a bit more decent around them and by that point I figured it out that guys wanted to be just friends with me.

Another boy from Ravenclaw, who had left to go to Australia with his Muggle parents, had expressed interest in me and I went out with him a couple of times. He had made me laugh and he had kissed me and it was nice, and I was attracted to him. But I wasn't as aware of him as I had been when the next day I saw Hunter walk down the hall and he hadn't seen me and I had pretended not to look at him. Or late that afternoon I had followed Tyler to the Quidditch pitch just because he hadn't seen it yet and really wanted to.

I kept out of Hunter's way, and anyway, he and Tyler seemed too busy giving each other some kind of death glares that he had only looked at me just before leaving, had become a little more composed and then left the pitch. As he left I noticed that he really did have a good head of hair.

It had turned out that Hunter was the Slytherin Quidditch captain and that made me feel guilty for even liking him a little bit. I knew that they rivalry between him and Tyler was going to skyrocket especially once the games drew closer.

'God,' said Tyler, 'I miss this pitch.'

I watched him breathe in the air. It was just us two and the sun was shining with hardly any clouds in the sky. 'When are you going to get on your broom?' I asked.

'When I can, I want to get some of this homework done. I can't believe they gave us stuff on the first day of lessons,' he complained.

I shrugged. 'At least every lesson today started off with a half an hour lecture about OWLs.'

'Yeah,' he said. 'I only needed to listen to the first one.'

'What, and then you just zoned out?' I asked.

Tyler turned away from the rest of the pitch to face me and he grinned.

'That's so typical of you,' I said. 'Some of the teachers gave all sorts of different tips.'

'Why do I need to listen to that sort of stuff when I have you shoving it down my throat anyway?' Tyler was grinning at me.

I glared at him, 'watch it or I'll hex you.'

'You wouldn't do that, being a prefect and all.' He was still grinning but had taken a few steps back just in case I'd hit him or something.

'I'm pretty sure I'd get away with it. There are a lot of people who want you hexed.'

'Teachers? Because last year I caused them a bit of trouble?' he snorted, brushing it off. 'I'll tell you who wants to hex me. Hunter Andrews. I can't believe he got captain.'

'Why?' I tried to hide the fact that I wanted to talk about Hunter, even if I knew Tyler wasn't going to say very nice things.

Tyler gave a hopeless smile. 'Because he's bloody good at all of this.'

'And you're not?'

He looked at me. 'How do I know if I'm cut out to be a captain? I know that I'm good at Quidditch, Matilda. But Andrews has had a year's experience that I haven't.' He sat down and lay on the grass.

'Look, you're smart, and you were basically captaining the team last year because Jenna McElroy was so bad at it. You've got a year's experience; you just didn't get the credit for it. Besides, you know the whole team will listen to you,' I said, sitting down with him.

I could see why Tyler loved the pitch. The grass was so green, and always smelt freshly mown. The ground was soft to sit on, a necessity if you crash into it from the sky, and then just the size of it made you think of grandness.

'I can see why I picked you to be my best friend,' said Tyler, propping himself up on his elbows and grinning.

'I did not get picked, I picked you,' I said.

'Yeah right,' he looked amused.

'So when are trials?' I asked. 'Rose wants to know.'

'She does?' For some reason he looked surprised.

I nodded. 'Better not give her any trouble because she's a girl. Last year the team did seem a bit more gender exclusive.'

'Oh shut up, I'm not sexist. Besides Jenna was the one to pick the team last year,' he pointed out.

'Yeah, she just went and picked all the hot, muscly hunks and by chance they had some talent.' I rolled my eyes.

'She was good fun,' he said.

'I thought you didn't like her.'

'I didn't like her captaining abilities,' Tyler said, looking away.

I shook my head in disgrace as I realised what had happened. 'You got with her?'

Tyler looked a little embarrassed. 'I'm not ugly, so it's not surprising.'

'No, you're the freaking opposite of ugly, that's why it's not surprising.' She was three years older than you, Tyler!' I tried to keep a serious look on my face but really I wanted to laugh at the whole thing, laugh at how uncomfortable he looked. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

'It's because you always disapprove. If I had told Ben he'd be like, way to go, mate. You just give me lectures,' he said gruffly.

I had to burst out laughing. 'I should just stop, shouldn't I? You don't even listen.'

'I do a lot of the time.' I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. 'Okay, some of the time. Besides, I don't know what you mean by 'got with,'' He made little quotation marks in the air, 'it was just a little snogging in the shed where we keep all the brooms.'

'I don't really want to know, so whatever,' I told him. 'But maybe I should tell Greta, do you think that she'd stop wanting to go out with you?' I asked.

He sat up fully, 'you'd think she'd say yes if I did?'

I sighed at the hopeful look on his face, and nodded.

He lay back down. 'Why don't you like her?'

'Because she doesn't like me because I'm hanging out with you all the time. She sends me death glares.'

'No offence to you Matilda, but doesn't she know nothing's going to happen here?' He asked. Tyler sat up to make sure I didn't look offended or anything, and when he saw the amused expression on my face he relaxed and went back to lying on his back.

'That would mean rational thinking, of which I think she is totally incapable of.'

'Be nice,' he said, 'for when I go out with her. And, it would be nice if you complain to somebody else about her because I don't think I'd like that. But if you seriously need someone to vent off to, I'm here.'

I laughed, 'Thanks Tyler.'

'Or you could get a boyfriend. Shame that Ravenclaw dude left.'

I was glad he was staring at the sky and couldn't see my face because it went a noticeable shade of pink. He would've known something was up, that I had someone in mind to be a boyfriend. Tyler would hate the fact that it was Hunter. I couldn't even believe it was Hunter, but I remembered the smell of his soap, or shampoo or even shaving cream. Maybe it was the mixture of the smells all together that made it so good. I remembered his shaggy black hair and I imagined the wind going through it while he was playing Quidditch, how it would probably get all messy. I was staring at the glass and I wrapped my hands around my knees because I wanted to feel another person's arms around me.

Tyler obviously didn't care much about the subject because he didn't say anything when I didn't answer; he just seemed to forget about it, lost in his own thoughts. When I asked him what he was thinking about, he blushed and then said, 'I was only wondering why Rose wanted to try out for the team.'

'Don't go thinking that it's because you're such a dish,' I said. I wondered if he fancied Rose a little bit, because she was very nice and rather pretty.

'Mm, it doesn't matter; I have Greta to think about.'

Classes had finished for the day and we decided to head back up to the common room before dinner to maybe do some work. I wanted to make sure that we used the last days of sunshine before winter as much as possible to just enjoy and so I was a little sad to go back up.

Everyone else in the school was not taking school very seriously yet. It was only the second day of classes so people were still relaxed, it still felt like the holidays.

'Ugh, I can't believe we haven't used any magic yet,' complained Tyler as we trudged up the stairs to the common room.

'I know! A summer without magic, you miss it.'

Tyler nodded.

'At least you see it around you, there's magic all around your house. I am completely starved of it,' I said, a taint of sadness on my tone.

He seemed to notice and he looked at me, I kept my gaze off him, but I kept on talking.

'Do you think that if my mother could use magic, she would? I mean there are so many benefits… Sometimes I think that it's unfair that I get to experience it and she doesn't.'

'Don't go getting guilty, if she doesn't understand now, she will once your of age and you can show her things, show her how good magic can be,' said Tyler.

'I wasn't getting guilty,' I said, although maybe I was.

He ignored me, 'Just don't go telling her about all of the bad stuff, like the Unforgiveable curses or all the jinxes and hexes there are or about Dark Magic. That might freak her out.'

We reached the Fat Lady who had gotten rid of her pineapple after hearing Ben say something bad about it. The Fat Lady only seemed to value the opinion of people who looked good themselves, and she had even asked Tyler who said, 'maybe if we have a costume party you could wear it.'

'Password,' she asked, eyeing me up and down.

I told her and she just stuck up her nose in a snotty way.

'What?' I asked, slightly annoyed.

Tyler was busy trying to fix the lace on his shoe so he really wasn't paying attention to the Fat Lady and me.

'I've heard about you,' she said.

'From who?' I folded my arms.

'That Greta Simmons girl and her tag along friend,' I rolled my eyes as soon as I heard that.

'Just let us in.' I repeated the password.

'Don't give me that look,' she sniffed, 'I know all about you hogging all the boys' attention. Why don't you give someone a little prettier a chance?'

'What, I'm not pretty?' I asked.

By this time Tyler had fixed his lace. 'Why are we talking about this?' he asked, before repeating the password.

This time the Fat Lady let us in and in my mind I cursed Greta Simmons. I hated how she was the first thing we saw when we came through the door. She bounded towards us, or Tyler, and after shooting me a dirty look she smiled at Tyler, took his hand and almost dragged him along to where they were sitting.

I sighed and went to my dorm, Rose was the only one sitting there, still unpacking all her things. I had already done this the previous night when Greta had again claimed all of Tyler's attention.

'Oh, hi Matilda,' said Rose. 'Did you ask Tyler about Quidditch?'

'I did, but he didn't give me a date. I'll ask him again later.'

She smiled, 'thanks.'

I pulled out some of the homework we had been given to do up here. I didn't want to be the recipient of snarky looks from Greta or April.

'So how are you finding classes?' Rose asked.

'Haven't really done anything much. I don't tend to find theory hard and that's all I've done,' I said.

'We have double potions tomorrow so we're bound to do something practical.'

'I quite like potions,' I said.

'That's because you're good at it,' said Rose with a small sigh. 'Honestly, I cringe whenever I think about the horrors that happened last year.'

'I can help you if you like,' I said.

'Thanks that would be really helpful. Last year, Greta said something nasty to Henry and Slughorn overheard, and she was to help me with my potions as punishment.'

'Bet she liked that,' I said sarcastically, 'helping…'

'She did enjoy it,' said Rose rather sullenly, 'there were plenty of opportunities to make fun of me, and I have to say, she took them all.'

'Why do you think Tyler likes her?' I asked.

She smiled at me and then turned away to put some things in her draws. 'I'm sure it's because,' she said with her back to me, 'she's perfectly nice when she wants to be. She's friendly when she feels like it. I know you don't like her, but maybe you should try and be friendly to her.'

I stared at Rose, incredulously. 'Why?'

'It might take her by surprise, and maybe she'll be nice back and you can all get along. I'm pretty sure Tyler is going to ask her out and I think he'd appreciate the effort you would make trying to get on with his future girlfriend,' Rose turned back to me and smiled.

'I suppose,' I said gruffly. 'But that can start tomorrow; I'm not up to it today.'

Rose laughed, and at that moment Alicia came in. She saw us chatting and she said to Rose, 'come on, let's go to the Great Hall for dinner.' She didn't say hi to me. I was thinking that Alicia didn't want me stealing her best friend from her now that Rose was all she had. I didn't mind too much because I understood. I didn't want my best friend to be taken away from me.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Six

I had managed to get a seat next to Tyler in every one of our classes. Out of our options, Greta was only in Care of Magical creatures with us. That didn't even have seats so she continually made her way over to talk to Tyler. I had tried to take Rose's advice, and said hi to Greta but she just stared at me and walked off. Tyler had given me a grateful smile at my attempt to be nice, so Greta's coldness didn't mind me too much.

We were now sitting in Transfiguration with Greta and the complete opposite end of the class. Professor McGonagall didn't mind me sitting with my best friend because she knew that that way Tyler was more likely to get more work done even if I got less work done than if we were with other people.

Finally, we were going to do some magic. When McGonagall told us to take out our wands Tyler gave a little quiet whoop beside me. I liked using magic, but my main problem was that I overdid things sometimes. It didn't really matter much when it was hard to overdo things, like turning matchsticks into needles. You couldn't really have a needle too needle like.

Whenever I complained about it Tyler would get a bit annoyed and would brush it off. He got like that because he wouldn't be able to do the spell at all but I would be able to do it too well. In the end I didn't complain to him about it but every time something embarrassing happened because of it I would complain until he stopped teasing me about it.

'Alright everyone, we will be vanishing objects today. I hope you all revised on the theory to do it from last lesson,' Professor McGonagall looked a little tired. She was teaching, acting as Gryffindor head of house, and was headmistress. I admired her for all that she did, but people like Ben couldn't see how close she could be to cracking and would cause distress for her in class, which I had to admit could be quite entertaining.

We were all given various objects to vanish, small non-living things. I watched Tyler wave his wand, say the incantation, but nothing happened. He sighed, annoyed at himself.

'It's only the first time,' I told him.

'I know.' He tried again with no luck. 'I'm going to ask Greta out tonight.'

'At dinner?' I asked.

'I hadn't really thought how,' he said. He seemed frustrated at the Vanishing he was meant to be doing. 'Any ideas?'

I wasn't really in the mood to give him ideas, this morning Rose had almost found the St. Mary's uniform and I considered vanishing that. I hated being reminded of how I wasn't meant to be at Hogwarts, I wasn't meant to be using magic if my mother had her way. So I shrugged at him and then proceeded to try and vanish the small comb. I felt the magic burst through me and out of my wand. The comb was nowhere to be seen.

'How do you do that?' asked Tyler.

'I don't know.' A lot of the time I could feel the magic boiling in my blood and it would be really strong. If I had my mind clear I would be able to control the strength of the spell, but if not it would just be too strong. I knew that that comb could've been a lot bigger and that the amount of magic I just used would have been plenty to vanish it.

I thought of my mother vanishing combs, whether or not she could do it. I wondered if Professor McGonagall ever had to tell her off for being as cheeky as Ben was being to the teacher.

'I was thinking,' said Tyler, 'that April is always with her, and I can't do it with her watching.'

'How come?' I asked.

'If Greta says no they'll just exchange looks and laugh.'

'But she's not going to say no. Do you even see the amount of attention she gives you?'

Tyler smiled at me. 'Still, I think that after dinner I should deliberately leave something behind. When we're in the common room I'll say that I've forgotten it and ask you to come with me. You are going to say that you're busy with homework or something and then call out to Greta, _'why don't you go with him?'_ It would be rude to say no so she'll come with me and I'll ask her.'

I smiled at Tyler, 'I've prefect's duty though, but it sounds like you've given it a lot of thought,

'That's why girls like me,' he said.

I snorted with laughter. 'Exactly,' I said, pretending to agree with him.

He started laughing too and then coughed suggestively. I froze knowing Professor McGonagall would be behind me. 'Miss Greystone, Mr Martins, show me what you've done,' she said in a no nonsense voice.

Tyler cleared his throat and tried to do the spell. McGonagall corrected his wand movement and then turned to face me.

'Miss Greystone, where is your comb?' she asked.

'I vanished it.'

Greta and April were watching from across the classroom, and I heard Greta call out, 'don't be silly Matilda. We all know you just hid it in your robes.'

The whole class was watching, and Tyler caught my eye and smiled. He knew I had vanished it but still he said, 'you know, Matilda, maybe we should check your robes,' he said with fake seriousness.

I hit him and giggled.

'Enough,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Miss Simmons, do you think Miss Greystone can vanish these objects?'

I was astounded as to why she would ask _her _opinion but I waited quietly for McGonagall to get on with it, knowing that she would probably have a reason.

'No,' said Greta stubbornly, sending me another dirty look.

'Then you wouldn't mind watching Miss Greystone try to vanish your lovely hair piece, maybe we'll see her stuff it into her robes,' she said in a flat tone. The rest of the class snickered.

Greta worked her way up to my desk and sniffing put the beautiful, golden clasp decorated with shells on the hard surface of the desk.

'Don't kill it,' she hissed.

'Maybe you shouldn't have worn it,' I told her. 'It's not regulation uniform.'

'Exactly,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Now please show me what you should've been doing at the back of the classroom instead of laughing at what Mr Martins has to say.'

I held my breath, unsure what to do.

'Come on, Miss Greystone, your mother took pride in wasting my time, please don't do the same.'

I gulped at the mention of my mother, but took my wand, and thought _oh god, my mother really did go here._ I looked around and saw that no one else had registered that comment. All my friends thought that my mother was a Muggle.

I still hadn't done anything and the class was waiting so Tyler hit me on the arm to hurry me up. I came to my senses and aware of everyone's eyes on me, especially Greta's, I did the spell and felt the magic throbbing everywhere and I vanished her hair piece.

Greta groaned when she saw it go. 'How do I get it back? Professor, make her get it back!'

I tried to compose myself, 'I'm sorry Greta, I don't know how to do that.'

I could see that Tyler was trying not to laugh; he knew that if he did Greta might not say yes to him. But then again, Greta may have founded a way to make sure that everything was my fault.

I was asked to stay behind in class and Tyler said he would wait for me outside. I wandered up to Professor McGonagall's desk and she looked at me. 'I would appreciate it if you didn't laugh during class, Matilda. I know that you don't seem to have trouble performing spells, but it sets a bad example if you don't pay attention and you are still able to do everything. It gives the impression to others that it is okay to wing it.'

'Sorry Professor.'

'That's quite alright. I am sure that now Miss Simmons has learnt her lesson about incorrect uniform.' She looked up from her notes and I could almost see a smile. It made me think I wasn't the only one to dislike Greta Simmons.

She let me go and Tyler wasn't outside the classroom. I looked around each corner to see if I could see him, but I couldn't. We both had Muggle Studies next and I was surprised that he hadn't waited for me like he said he would.

It was chance that Tyler and I took all the same classes. When the time came for us to choose our options, I had no trouble deciding mine but he seemed to. He wanted to copy my timetable but I refused saying I didn't want to be responsible for him choosing a class that he didn't like. But we both took Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Muggle Studies.

I sighed and wandered in the direction of the class. Professor Jones, a middle aged man, was taking over Muggle Studies and so far I liked him. He didn't let people like Ben get away with looking at my work. Ben said the class was so easy for me because I was raised by a Muggle, but I wasn't, I was raised by a witch. She really had no clue about Muggle things and it was only because I made friends with girls and went over to their houses a lot that I figured things out for myself. I didn't know a thing about fairy tales when last year we talked about some of the similarities between Muggles and witches and wizards, and I didn't know how Muggles viewed magic, I just knew that my mother hated the mention of it.

I wished that I had some idea of how to control the strength of the spells that I cast. Today it was alright because that wasn't the kind of spell you could over do, unless I managed to vanish the desk that the comb was sitting on. But that was never really an issue because my aim with spells wasn't bad.

I carried on through walking up the moving staircases. I still had trouble finding this class because Professor Jones wanted a different classroom to the one Professor Greenhorn had. Some of the other students were still making their way to class and I walked past Jeff who seemed in a hurry. He nodded in my direction as he walked past and hurried down the corridor behind me.

I arrived at Muggle Studies a little bit late, and I glared at Tyler for not waiting for me. He shrugged an apology, something I had only ever seen Tyler do, no one else, and I sat by him trying to ignore the annoyed glare coming from Professor Jones for being a little late.

'What did McGonagall want?' He whispered.

'What do you think?' I said back. 'Where did you go off to?'

'Greta wanted me to go part of the way to Divination with her,' he whispered back, 'and she didn't want to be late.'

'Couldn't she have gone by herself?'

'I don't know,' he said shrugging again, 'I thought you wouldn't mind.'

I sighed and averted my attention to Professor Jones who was still eyeing us as he kept on teaching. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Tyler shifting guiltily in his seat and I knew that he didn't really want to upset me. I turned my head towards him and smiled, he smiled back, a little relieved.

I passed him a note. _So what are you going to forget?_

He gave another smile at me when he read it and I saw him scribble something down. He chucked the piece of parchment over. I knew that Professor Jones could see but for some reason he wasn't saying anything about it. I read the note as discreetly as I could and it read: _History of Magic textbook._ A wave of embarrassment came over me when I read that, thinking about when I ran into Hunter a couple of days earlier. We hadn't talked since, we hadn't really talked at all and I wondered what we would even talk about. Not Quidditch, that subject was too closely linked with Tyler. Maybe school was a good option or subjects or teachers. I wanted to ask him what he was really thinking when I had made a fool out of myself about forgetting that textbook.

Tyler tapped impatiently on his desk, wanting a reply. I scribbled him a hasty reply and thought that maybe I should start taking notes. Tyler saw the determined look on my face to concentrate on the lesson and he left me to do that and instead started up a quiet conversation with Ben.

At the end of the lesson I was again called up by the teacher to get told off by. It wasn't exactly a good day for me.

'So first you came in late,' Professor Jones said gruffly. 'Why?'

'Professor McGonagall kept me in late like you are and I still haven't figured out the fastest route to this room,' I told him, hoping I could get away with this.

'Why did she keep you?'

'I wasn't paying attention in class and still managed to vanish an object.'

'Right,' he said. 'And then you came in and started talking to Mr Martins.'

'He was supposed to wait for me but didn't. I was a bit annoyed at him,' I said.

'And then the note passing. What was that about?'

'Tyler wants to ask a girl out tonight and he wanted some advice,' I said quietly. I didn't normally get in trouble very much but every time I told the full truth things worked out better than just saying something like 'nothing.' I think that teachers appreciated knowing the truth.

'Couldn't that wait until after class?' He asked.

'Sorry sir, I guess it could've.'

He cleared his throat and he looked at his shoes. 'I hope that doesn't bother you,' he said, 'him asking another girl instead of you.'

'Oh, Tyler and I are just friends,' I said with a smile.

'Right. I really shouldn't try and understand how a teenage mind works. That time for me was just so long ago,' and with a face full of embarrassment he let me go without a single punishment.

It was lunch now and even though I was hungry I didn't feel like sitting in the Great Hall. I had just been told off by two teachers in a row and the feeling of uncomfortable embarrassment made me feel so exhausted. I went to the Great Hall, told Tyler that I didn't feel like eating lunch inside and I took a sandwich and left. I got to the end of the table and he yelled out, 'I'm sorry for kind of getting you in trouble twice!' for the whole hall to hear.

I turned back around, and even though everyone in the hall had their eyes on me I grinned at him, shaking my head and I left, and headed down towards the green lawn for me to sit under a tree and do some homework.

I was just about to take a bite out of my sandwich when someone tapped my shoulder and made me jump and I ended up dropping my sandwich on the ground. I turned around slightly annoyed and I knew that I wouldn't be very nice if it was Greta or April.

But it was Hunter and he was already apologising for dropping the sandwich. He looked a bit embarrassed, and picked it up and muttered, 'scourgify,' and all the dirt came off it.

'Look it's okay if you still don't want to eat it,' he said with a little grin.

I smiled, because of course I didn't really want to eat now. 'Good, because I wasn't going to.'

'Alright then,' he said, and used the vanishing spell that I was using earlier. 'So where are you headed?'

'I just wanted to sit outside.'

Hunter smiled, 'can I walk with you?'

In total surprise I muttered that sure, he could walk with me to wherever I was going and in response I got another one of those smiles of his and for some reason it made my heart kind of jump for a moment before settling back into my chest.

'So what's it like being in Slytherin?' I asked.

He ran a hand through his messy black hair and he looked at me from the side appearing a little amused. 'What's it like being in Gryffindor?' he asked.

'Well, I've kind of been in Gryffindor my whole life, it's like routine.'

'Same for me,' he said in a matter of fact way.

'In Gryffindor you're supposed to be brave or courageous, but there is little opportunity to show those kinds of things,' I said with a shrug. I was watching him out of the corner of my eye and whenever I looked away I always just had to peek at him again to make sure he was really talking to me.

'Aren't Slytherins supposed to be ambitious and cunning?' He asked me.

'Maybe,' I said and he smiled. 'Are you?'

'Maybe,' he said.

His smile was a little infuriating because it was as if he wasn't telling me something that I wanted to know, even though I didn't know what it was. I looked at his face, he had turned to face me, and I searched for a reason that he might want to speak with me but I couldn't find anything. I didn't dare ask, it seemed like that would be something rude to say.

'So what did you do to get in trouble?' he said after I didn't say anything.

'You heard that?'

'The whole hall heard that,' he pointed out.

'Laughed, passed notes, talked in class. It wasn't really Tyler's fault,' I said, pushing a bit of hair behind my ear. I saw Hunter watch as it fell away from my ear again and I tried to get it somewhere away from my face. I gave up with it dangling near my eye and I looked up at Hunter and our eyes met. I stared for a few seconds at his that friendly look on his beautiful face before I looked away. I felt him still looking at me for a moment and then that hair rising feeling was broken when someone called out Hunter's name.

It was one his friends, one that I had always seen him with him in the corridors, Niall Jackson, a Slytherin sixth year.

'What are you doing, walking around with a Gryffindor?' he said pointedly once he had reached us. Niall scowled in my direction but I didn't have the heart to scowl back.

'Did she drop something and you just had to be a gentleman and give it back?' asked Niall, making fun of Hunter.

Hunter just gave Niall a hard look, and didn't appear embarrassed by what was said, he just looked indifferent. 'Whatever you want to think, Niall,' he said.

Niall stared at me for a second, looking me up and down, making me feel uncomfortable. His eyes rested on my prefect's badge. 'You choose to start up a conversation with not only a Gryffindor, but a Gryffindor prefect?'

'Be careful or I'll give you a detention,' I said.

Hunter laughed but Niall just glared at me.

'Isn't this the chick who hangs out with Martins? The Gryffindor Quidditch captain?' He asked after a while. Niall was quite a large person, not fat, just large. He was a little short and had blonde hair and green eyes. He could've been nice looking but he constantly wore an expression that made him look tough, but altogether made him less attractive than he could've been.

'Yes I'm friends with Tyler,' I said.

Niall turned towards Hunter. 'Are you trying to get Quidditch secrets? That's okay then.'

I looked, a little startled at Hunter who just smiled at me. Somehow that smile made me feel alright, and so I relaxed and left Niall and Hunter together to go sit under a tree.

I looked back and saw Hunter's gaze was still in my direction, he looked a little regretful at his friend's arrival but after a small wave in my direction he followed Niall back inside.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Seven

By dinner I was still thinking about my conversation with Hunter. I was nervous to be around him so I was surprised that I even managed to speak. Tyler kept on asking me if I was alright, or if I was still angry with him. I had to assure him several times that I wasn't.

We had begun eating and after about ten minutes Rose sat down opposite us at the table, 'Hi guys,' she said cheerfully.

I smiled at her, and Tyler with food in his mouth just nodded. I could see Rose trying not to laugh as Tyler had to work through the amount of food in his mouth.

'That's why small mouthfuls are good,' I said, hitting Tyler's arm.

He glared at me and then gulped the rest of the food down. 'I'm not as bad as Ben,' he said. We all looked over and saw him shovelling food down at an alarming rate.

'I suppose,' I said, grabbing another bread roll.

'Rose,' said Tyler. She looked up from her food straight away. 'I've found a time for Quidditch trials, Matilda said you were interested.'

Rose blushed.

'I didn't know you could play, what position are you trying out for?' He asked.

'Beater,' she muttered, looking at her food.

Tyler and I exchanged looks of surprise.

'But you're like the nicest person we know,' said Tyler, 'and you want to aim bludgers at people?' He sounded incredulous.

'It was a girl last year,' said Rose a little defensively.

'Yeah, but that was Olivia Bennett, she was fierce, people stayed away from her all the time,' argued Tyler.

Rose looked up, 'How do you know I'm not fierce?' she pointed out.

Tyler stayed quiet, but he kept on looking at her.

'So when are trials?' she asked, a little more confident with herself. I smiled at her.

'Friday afternoon,' said Tyler.

'Cool.'

I laughed at the stupid expression on Tyler's face, but quickly lost my smile when Greta squeezed herself between Tyler and me. I caught Rose's eye and she quickly looked down away from Greta's obvious flirting. It was something no one wanted to look at.

'Did you get your hairpiece back?' I asked Greta.

She gave me a cold look. 'Yes,' she said icily.

This made Tyler smile slightly, but it disappeared as soon as Greta looked at him again. They continued chatting and this still gave me time to think about Hunter some more and how I just wanted to run my hands through his messy hair, which sometimes had little curls in it.

'Where's Alicia?' I asked Rose.

'She's sending a letter in the owlery. It's her mum's birthday tomorrow, but I was hungry so I came here,' said Rose. 'Oh, there she is!'

We all saw Alicia coming down the hall, walking at a brisk pace.

'God, she looks horrid,' said Greta in a snotty voice.

It was true that she did look quite bad, pale and like she had been crying. I hated Greta for pointing it out, it wasn't something that needed to be showcased. I looked over at Rose who looked back at me and whispered, 'I think something's happened at home. She won't tell me anything.'

By the time Alicia plopped down tiredly at the table we had all started a stupid conversation about the weather, the roof of the Great Hall a dark grey colour that threatened rain.

'Well, it's really windy outside,' said Alicia, taking one of the bread rolls and spreading butter on it.

'Did you manage to send your letter?' asked Rose.

'No, the owls can't fly in this wind, so maybe tomorrow,' she looked a little irritated at this.

As soon as Alicia had finished the roll, she announced that she wanted to go back to the common room. We had all been swamped with homework that day and we all agreed that we needed to get some work done. I had prefect duties with Lucas that night and I was to meet him in the Entrance Hall after dinner.

We stood up and I could see that Rose had noticed the History of Magic textbook that Tyler had deliberately left behind.

'Hey Tyler,' she said, 'you left your-'

I shook my head at her and she stopped abruptly. Tyler, Greta and Alicia looked back at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence.

'Um, you have a spider on your back,' she said a little helplessly.

I quickly brushed nothing off Tyler's back, saying 'there you go,' while Greta jumped a mile away from Tyler. I laughed and Tyler caught my eye and grinned. 'There's nothing freaky about spiders are there?'

I rolled my eyes. 'That's because you were swamped with them in the Forbidden Forrest. I think that helped you get over them.'

'Ah, yes one spider is definitely less intimidating than about a hundred.'

Ben was walking back up from the other end of the table, wanting to leave too and he overheard and shuddered. 'God, that almost put me off breaking rules.'

We all laughed and with an impatient look from Greta, still cowering away from the non-existent spider, we went over to the Entrance Hall. When we got there, a group of Slytherins were leaving the Great Hall and I noticed that Hunter was among them. Niall said something stupid and mean to Tyler, who gave a quick retort and tried to keep on going up the stairs.

I caught Hunter's eye but he didn't smile at all. His eyes swept over the rest of the group and Tyler said, 'what are you looking at Andrews?' in a dirty tone.

'Just checking to see if you still had no talent,' he said smoothly.

I watched Tyler's face come over with anger, 'I think you'll find we will have more talent than you.'

'The same talent that caused you to lose the cup last year?' asked Hunter.

'Come off it, Andrews. You know you don't stand a chance.' Tyler took a step forward, and their eyes were both at the same level, their shoulders were as wide as each other's. They both were comfortable in their own skin, two gorgeous people ready to battle it off with each other. I found my eyes drawn to Hunter, just Hunter even though I knew Tyler looked just as intimidating, just as sure.

I watched nervously as the whole exchange was going on and for the millionth time I thought that I couldn't ever like Hunter, Tyler would kill me. I could see Niall looking at me with folded arms, and I think he was glad that Hunter wasn't paying much attention to me.

'Let's go,' said Tyler, sick of the banter that had been happening. Ben, Rose, Alicia and Greta followed him up the stairs but I stayed, waiting for Lucas.

Tyler turned back around, and the rest of us and the group of Slytherins were looking at me. 'Aren't you coming?' Tyler asked me.

'I'm waiting for Lucas,' I said with some awkwardness. I could a bunch of their eyes on me, and the pair I was most aware of was Hunter's.

He didn't say anything, but looked at me as he went off with Niall and his friends in the direction of the Slytherin common room. Tyler and the rest of them were still waiting on the stairs and they watched the group go.

'You'll be gone later?' he called down the stairs, and I knew he didn't want me there when he was going to ask Greta out. I nodded.

'Good,' he said, turning back around. While he said that I heard Alicia say to Rose, 'I wish Hunter Andrews wasn't in Slytherin, he's just so good looking and we can't have him.' She sighed. We can't have him. I can't have him, I'm in Gryffindor, I thought to myself with a sigh more regretful than Alicia's.

Lucas came a few minutes after that and we patrolled the corridors together making sure people weren't out of bed past curfew. We chatted but I was tired, so the conversation wasn't as lively as it could have been. Lucas was tired after doing homework late into the night last night.

'How come you had to stay up so late?' I asked.

'I got a detention, that Niall guy from Slytherin got the better of me.'

'What happened?'

'He said that I wasn't cut out to be Quidditch player,' he looked at me, a bit regretful at his actions, 'that was the PG 12 version,' he told me and I laughed. 'Then I hexed him.'

'McGonagall caught me and said that maybe I wasn't cut out to be a prefect.'

'I hope you didn't hex her.'

Lucas laughed. 'No, I didn't. But she looks as though she might break from the stress she's under. Same with Alicia, their expressions sometimes mirror each other's.'

'Do you know what's up with her?' I said with concern.

He shook his head, 'I really don't know, but she's distancing herself from everyone. I know that she barely says two words to Rose anymore.'

'Poor Rose,' I said.

'Poor Alicia,' said Lucas. 'Whatever it is, it's eating her up.'

On Patrol we found several second years that weren't in bed yet and so we told them off with a warning. It was hard to remember everyone's names, but I was good at remembering faces so I knew that they wouldn't be able to get past me and Lucas again.

'So what was all that about in the Entrance Hall?' he asked.

'Epic showdown between Tyler and Hunter,' I said dramatically, 'although, it didn't really amount to much.'

'Hunter?' Lucas asked with an eyebrow raised.

'What?'

'You're on a first name basis?' he said a little sceptically.

I shook my head hurriedly. 'No, I've barely talked to him.'

'Then why….?' He asked, searching for answers.

I shrugged, 'I'll tell you why,' I said. 'When we first met, before I was sorted, he introduced himself to me as Hunter.'

'And it stuck?' guessed Lucas, with a small smile on his lips.

I nodded and Lucas was a gentleman enough not to say anything more on the subject. I told myself I had better watch my tongue, so I didn't slip up again, so I didn't hint that I might fancy Hunter. As I was thinking this, over and over again, Lucas and I made our way up to the Gryffindor common room tiredly. I still had a bit of work that I wanted to get done, to keep up to date with the study/homework schedule I had given myself but I knew that I couldn't be bothered. I had done way more than originally planned for the first week because my main distraction had been occupied by Greta.

We gave the password to the Fat Lady who still eyed me with a look of disgrace but at least she didn't say anything even though I was with another boy. Inside the common room there was hardly anyone about. On the armchair by the dwindling fire was a seventh year boy who had already gotten detention and was finishing an essay that I knew was due tomorrow. Lucas went straight up to his dormitory and seeing Tyler I went over to him.

He was lying on the couch, evidently exhausted with his eyes shut. _Hogwarts: A History_ lay open on his chest and I couldn't believe he was even reading it.

I shoved his arm and he groaned before peering out of one eye. He saw me and tried to sit up, the book falling to the floor with a loud clang.

'Hello Matilda,' he said with a yawn, so that I could barely understand what he was saying.

'I can't believe you were reading that book,' I said.

Tyler stretched his arms and a bit more awake now he said, 'well, I only got ten pages in.'

I smiled. 'So what happened with Greta?'

'Can I tell you tomorrow?' he asked, 'I'm just so tired.'

I wasn't at all sympathetic. 'Then why are you waiting down here trying to read the most boring book for teenage boys?'

He gave a lazy grin, 'alright, I'll tell you.'

I was kneeling on the floor and so I stood up and sat at the other end of the couch where Tyler had removed his legs and just swung them onto the table nearby.

'Well walking through the castle with Greta is not the same as with Ben and Jeff doing all the pranks that normally you refuse to do,' he said. 'Why don't you do them?'

'Well, I see how many rules you're breaking and then I decide on that basis. Most of your pranks are well over breaking ten rules so I can't,' I told him.

'You did the mistletoe one last year,' Tyler pointed out.

'How I regretted it,' I said which caused him to smile.

'Well, walking in the castle with Ben and stuff, we're just cracking jokes under our breath, trying not to be too loud. It's slightly spooky and edgy, you know? Full of excitement because you don't know if you're going to get caught.'

'It sounds like you could rob Gringotts one day.'

'Still has only been done twice,' he said. 'And I do not have any access to dragons.'

I smiled.

'Anyway, with Greta the chatter she is capable of is just amazing. God, she could go on for more than hours and so it just seemed fun and light hearted,' he said, eyes bright. 'We found the textbook, and on our way back I was all like _thanks for coming with me_ and she was all smiles and flirtatious comments.'

'And hair flipping, and seductive looks and-'

'Shut up,' he said with another grin.

'And then I said that I didn't want to go back just yet and she guessed it was because I liked spending time with her and she said, 'well, if I had it my way, I'd be spending all the time I could with you,'' he made little quote marks in the air, and then his eyes got really bright and he said, 'and then she kissed me.'

'Great,' I said.

'She's a good kisser,' he said thoughtfully.

'Look, I really don't want to know about that part,' I said. Tyler turned away from his thoughts and smiled at me.

'I'm not really sure I want you to hear it.'

'Good,' I said.

'It's just that to me you're still like an innocent little girl,' he said with a small smile, eyes hopeful that I wouldn't react.

I narrowed my eyes and I hit him on the arm, 'I am not a little girl!' Then I hit him again.

'Okay, okay,' he said, but I could tell that he wanted to laugh, which made me want to hit him harder still and his arms were up trying to defend himself. The seventh year doing his essay looked up to glare at us.

'I can't believe you just said that,' I was pissed off. 'So what, I get a boyfriend, and to protect me from losing my, my _innocence_, you beat him up if he even lays one finger on me?'

'That's pretty much it. Even though you're my best friend, you're like a younger sister to me,' he said with a grin.

'God, I can't believe you,' I shook my head from side to side. 'What about that Ravenclaw guy?' I asked him.

'Oh,' he said with a grin, 'I knew that he wasn't going to go any further than first base, he seemed too timid for _that_.'

I hit him again, glaring at him while he just laughed at me. 'I need to find something else to tease you about,' I said. 'I can't about Greta because I really don't want to talk about her, and you're far too uptight about Quidditch for that, and then you'll just tease me about school work if I tease you about it, so what have I got?' I said with a sigh.

Tyler shrugged, 'I just can't believe Greta kissed me first.'

'I told you the girls did the chasing.'

'I think I told you that,' he said, an eyebrow raised. 'So after that I asked her out and we'll be going to Hogsmeade together a couple the first Saturday of October,' he said without a blush.

'What happened to our annual make-paper-aeroplanes-with-funny-or-nice-messages-in-them-climb-a-tree-where-they-can't-see-us-and-charm-them-to-fly-towards-people-passing-by?' I asked him, a little disappointed.

He looked at me a bit guiltily. 'We'll do that next time, I promise. And while I'm with her you can hang out with Ben, Jeff and Lucas,' he said as if that solved everything.

I gave him a weary look, 'alright then, you just make sure you enjoy your time with Greta.'

'Thanks, Matilda,' he said, and with that we both headed off to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Hogwarts and all the Harry Potter characters and places belong to J.K Rowling. All new characters are created by me.

I really like the idea of this fan fic so please don't copy it. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter Eight

The next morning at breakfast Greta was all over Tyler and she seemed to think that she had some all new authority that allowed her to sit next to him, run her hand up and down his arm, laugh at everything he said, feed him food with her fork. They hadn't even been going out for twenty four hours yet.

I could see that Tyler loved all the extra attention he was getting, because he needn't say two words and Greta was already agreeing with him. Sometimes, I could see that it made him a little uncomfortable especially when he caught my eye. All I gave him were amused smirks every time he looked at me and that expression was on Ben's face, Jeff's face and even Lucas's face, the only one of his friends that I thought might cut him some slack.

I exchanged looks with Alicia who even though looked rather tired, managed to be entertained. April was sitting nearby agreeing with whatever Greta said, who was agreeing with whatever Tyler said. I felt a little sorry for April but when I turned to smile at her she gave a dirty look that seemed to say, _your man's taken._

Looking at my food, I was annoyed because it didn't take much to see that Tyler and I would only ever be friends. I remembered the time when Ben said that the likelihood of Tyler and I going out was as great as either of us making babies with the Giant Squid. We had both laughed, and besides, Tyler saw me as his little sister who needed protecting from the great evils in the world which took the form of boys. It didn't really help that all I really did was hang out with boys ever since my first year.

The jealous looks that girls did give me for hanging out with all these guys well surpassed the amount of times I put my hand up in class, which was a lot. And I hated it because it was totally unnecessary, and it really meant that I couldn't be friends with girls who were silly when it came to boys.

I exchanged looks with Rose about what was going on with Tyler and Greta and she smiled at me a little bit sheepishly and said, 'I understand why the spider thing was necessary now.'

I really liked Rose, she was the only girl who seemed to understand that I was only friends with Tyler and so I could talk to her with her still being friendly.

'Is she coming to Quidditch try outs?' she asked in a whisper, 'I don't think I could do it with her there.'

I smiled at her worried expression, 'well if it's still raining this afternoon like it is now, she won't want to come, her hair will get ruined.'

Rose smiled at that and she took a sip of her pumpkin juice. I looked back up at Tyler who was watching us and he asked us what we were talking about. Greta glared at us when Tyler wasn't looking for taking his attention away from her.

'Just about the weather for try outs,' I said, noticing that Rose was going a shade of pink. I don't think she liked being almost caught saying something less the friendly about someone.

'Well, rain or shine try outs are on,' said Tyler, 'in fact, the rain is better; then we can weed out the weedy people who don't like rain.'

'Exactly,' said Ben after swallowing down the last bite of his tenth piece of toast. 'If you can't play in the rain…' There was a smirk on his face.

'So, Rose,' said Tyler, a little teasingly, 'are you afraid of a bit of rain?'

'I'm more worried about my hair, I spend three hours in the morning on it, wash it with this special shampoo and conditioner and I can't go outside if it's at all windy and the rain would just make it frizz all up,' she said as seriously as she could.

I laughed because it was exactly Greta's hair routine. Tyler was smiling at Rose.

'Well, even if there's no wind, if you're on a broom it's like there is,' said Ben who was laughing at Rose.

'Oh God, I know,' she said, appearing annoyed at Ben. 'I have been on a broom, I can fly. Ask Greta about my hair and she'll tell you I don't care three ounces about it compared to what she does.'

Even though it was more of an insult towards Greta, she still liked the chance to talk about herself and to make a dirty comment about Rose.

'Well, I should watch out for your red hair Rose, do you remember last year in potions when your potion exploded and it was like you had an afro?' She said with fake interest.

'With clarity,' murmured Rose, embarrassed. I glared at Greta who just smirked at me.

'Well, I can't wait to see you fly,' Tyler told Rose hurriedly, in an effort to steer the conversation to a friendlier ground. Rose looked up at Tyler and she smiled.

'Well thank God Matilda's not the one on a broom,' said Ben and the whole table laughed except Rose who just smiled.

'Yes I do remember Flying Lessons in our first year,' said Tyler with a smirk. 'I can still see you hanging from your broom by your hands as it went up and up-'

'Shut up,' I said, but I was laughing.

He was laughing too, 'and up and up and up, until you crashed and grabbed the branch of that tree and had to climb down the tree.'

'I seem to remember you showing off your skills. 'Watch me! Watch this!' was all that you could say,' I told him.

'Well I was very good,' said Tyler, taking a bite of his toast, a little embarrassed. He didn't really like it when I caught him when he was showing off. I smirked and Greta said, 'I remember you were_ very very_ good,' she told him sweetly.

We went off to our morning classes, which were all the compulsory ones that Greta was in. She had her arm linked with Tyler's and she pulled him forward so that she and him were walking a little bit ahead of me, Ben and Lucas. We all exchanged looks with each other and the only one who still thought it was mildly funny was Ben. Whenever Tyler turned around to look at us Ben mimed signs of encouragement that I really wished I hadn't seen and then Lucas would just smile at the situation and I would shrug at Tyler if he happened to catch my eye. The rest of the people in the corridor noticed this and took part in the encouraging, but often rude gestures, and the only person who didn't realise what was going on was Greta. After a while of this I had to admit that I was smiling, laughing at Greta's obliviousness and Tyler's sheepish grin.

During double potions I was asked by Professor Slughorn to send a message to the head to say that he needed a replacement of spare cauldrons because the last one had just melted through. It wasn't Rose, who was thankful for that fact but Greta still gave her a rude comment about it. I was at his desk when he asked me and I said, 'can't it wait till break or something, when you're all in the staffroom together?' I asked, wanting to get back to my potion that needed constant stirring for ten minutes.

Professor Slughorn shook his head repeatedly. 'Oh no, I need someone she won't yell at, which is why I'm not sending one of my own house,' he said. 'The headmistress is under a lot of pressure from the parents and she doesn't want me harassing her about melted cauldrons,' he said, nodding. 'So I'm afraid you'll need to do it because she won't listen to me.'

'But sir, what about my potion?' I asked sweetly.

He didn't care about that. 'Get that Quidditch boy your friends with to stir it,' he said with a wave of his hand. I sighed, annoyed and went to ask Tyler if he could do that but Greta had commanded his full attention. Lucas, my next choice was focussing so intently on his potion that I didn't dare break his concentration.

I didn't want to ask Ben, but Rose said that she'd probably ruin mine, which was true. So Ben was my only choice. He was laughing away and chatting up girls and he was surprised when I came to him for help.

'What do you want, Matilda?' Ben asked, 'wouldn't have thought that you would need any help.' He snickered and I wondered why I had even tried to fancy him. Then I remembered that he looked rather nice.

'Enough with the joking around Ben, I need to deliver a message, and I need you to stir my potion,' I said, tired of all of this.

'I'm sorry,' he said with fake politeness, 'I'm busy; you'll have to ask your boyfriend Henry.'

I glared at him and I couldn't believe that I had to resort to Henry Burton, who seemed very pleased that he got the task at hand. I stomped off to McGonagall's classroom and hoped that she wasn't teaching.

Her classroom was a long way from the Dungeons and so I wandered for a rather long time. At least I didn't have my bag full of all my heavy books weighing me down. I arrived at her classroom and thought that I should maybe knock on the door. After a few moments Professor McGonagall said in a faint but mildly annoyed voice to come in.

At the empty classroom, Hunter was there with her and I hesitated. McGonagall was sitting at her desk looking tired and Hunter was standing before her with his eyes on me. I gave him a small smile and then after a few seconds he smiled back but then turned to face McGonagall.

'Mr Andrews, we'll discuss this later, I know that your head of house isn't exactly the most helpful, he enjoys making students work for things, but I can't let you change the members of your Quidditch team based on something that you have no proof of, especially since you already held try outs. He's a talented player, so maybe you should just grin and bear it,' said McGonagall, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

'I'm sorry, Professor. For the moment I'll put up with it, but I will not pretend to be happy about it,' he said.

Professor McGonagall nodded and then she waved her hand for him to leave the room. I moved out of the way to let Hunter pass, and smelt what must have been his aftershave or something like it again. He seemed a little angry and frustrated, and he didn't smile at me again, but he nodded as he went past, but didn't look at me at all.

'Miss Greystone?' asked Professor McGonagall.

I was still looking at where Hunter had disappeared _again_ and I jumped having been brought back to reality. I wandered over to her, and she sighed at me when she saw I had a look of curiosity on my face.

'Hello, Professor,' I said.

'I'm not telling you anything, Matilda, so please don't ask,' she said.

She rarely used our first names.

'I wasn't going to,' I told her quickly.

'Even though it's in your eyes,' she noted. 'What do you want? Shouldn't you be in class?'

'Professor Slughorn sent me,' I mumbled, 'about replacing the spare cauldrons; the last one has melted through.'

'And so he sent you, did he?' McGonagall's face showed no emotion.

I nodded. 'Should I go back then, tell him you'll get on to it soon?'

'Sit down Miss Greystone.'

I gulped and sat at the chair in front of her desk. Her hair was pulled back into its usual bun, and her expression was one of tiredness and irritation. The emerald green robes had a brooch she changed every day but today it was the same as the day before. It gave the impression she had been working all night.

'As headmistress, I need to take interest in each of my students and then especially as head of house,' she said. 'And you're here, so I might as well take an interest in your studies.'

I gave her a small smile. 'Have you taken an interest in anyone else?'

She gave me a hard look. I reckoned that she just needed a break from all of her work and was using me as a distraction from it.

'Professor?' I asked.

'Yes, Miss Greystone?'

'Did you want to be headmistress, or just head of house?' I asked her.

'Well since Professor Snape, no one wanted to take the job. Hogwarts is a lot more independent from the Ministry nowadays, and it's taken a lot to fix the property and find suitable teachers that aren't frightened. I'm afraid the only people who aren't afraid of everything that Voldemort was is the generation who didn't have to live with it. I only feared for the safety of other people, not of him and I recognised that this school needed a leader who wouldn't cower in fear, to teach its students to be strong. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only person who possesses those qualities, and even though I prefer teaching and helping students, I am forced to sign a piece of paper ordering new cauldrons when I just don't have the time.'

'Too bad the Ministry put a ban on time-turners,' I said.

'I think the students that come out the strongest are the ones that have had something terrible happen to them, they have to be strong from an early age, you might understand,' she said.

'Sorry, Professor?'

She looked at me, 'your mother was not a very talented witch, Matilda. She never quite got the hang of it, and she hated it, preferred to take the social route instead of the academic one.' I had frozen, and hoped she wouldn't realise that this was the first I had heard of any of this. 'I suspect that's why she married that handsome Muggle. I've heard that she'll have nothing to do with magic anymore now that Voldemort's supporters killed your father. I'm surprised she had the sense to send you to this school.'

I let the piece of hair that I often tucked behind my ear fall over my face. I didn't want her to see my reaction because I was paralysed with shock and with sadness. I had had no idea about the circumstances of my father's death, I had no idea at all and I just wanted to cry. How could my mother keep all of this from me? I was starting to hate her a little bit at a time. It started when I was in the attic, and then when McGonagall mentioned her during class, and then again now. No wonder why I couldn't normally connect on any level with her. I was away from home all the time, was only able to write letters to her whenever I went to Hogsmeade because there was a shop for Muggle postage, and then she was keeping such a big part of herself from me and I was keeping a big part of myself from her. We were lying to each other and if she found out I knew that she would hate me for it too.

'You know,' said Professor McGonagall, unaware of what she had stirred in me. 'I remember when that flock of owls attacked her. Ronan Derby cast a charm on her that made them all flock to her; I gave him a detention scrubbing the mud off the floors a day that Filch was sick. The weather was horrible outside and we had just had a Quidditch game so everyone was traipsing in mud.'

I was silent, still not knowing what to say. I wanted to know what McGonagall would say when she figured out that I had stretched the truth about the owls to cover the fact that I hadn't told my mother that I was going to Hogwarts.

'So how are your studies going?' She asked me.

'I tend to overdo the spells a lot,' I said quietly.

'I wouldn't be embarrassed about it, you just need to control your emotions, and that will help you control the magic that you give each spell.'

I looked up at her. That was the best bit of advice I had ever gotten from anyone about doing spells, teachers often thought that I didn't need any help when I felt like I really did.

'I heard about your Cheering Charm in Charm's class,' she told me.

'Tyler couldn't stop laughing until Madam Pomfrey gave him a potion that made him fall asleep. By the morning, it had worn off. He missed all his classes that day, and then he didn't have to do an essay about the Hungarian witch who tricked Muggles into trying to-'

'Tame a dragon. Yes, apparently that caused a bit of mayhem and a reason why dragon breeding in Britain is illegal. Well, you better head off to class,' said McGonagall.

I stood up and looked at her without smiling. I didn't think I'd ever be in the mood to smile for a while now. She was looking down at her desk and so she didn't see how close I was to tears. I left, closed the door behind me and planned to go as slowly as I could to Potions class so that I didn't look like a nervous wreck, threatening to break down.

'Matilda?' said a voice.

My eyes flicked up to the person who said my name. Hunter. He was leaning against the stone wall, hands in his pockets next to an empty painting. I wanted to touch him, I wanted him to hold me and tell me everything would be alright even though I barely knew him.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

'Nothing,' I said a little bit too quickly, and shutting the door so that McGonagall couldn't hear anything. He looked sympathetic because it was so obvious that something was wrong. 'Did you hear any of that?' I asked him.

'Your conversation with McGonagall?' he asked me.

I nodded.

'Not a word.'

I wasn't sure if I had exactly wanted him to hear it or not. If he had heard it, it would need explaining as to why it had made me upset and I wasn't sure if I was ready to let anyone know. I had hidden it for years and to just suddenly come out with it seemed quite daunting.

'So how come you're not in class?' I asked.

'I have study break.'

'How come you're not studying?'

Hunter smiled. 'I'm trying to persuade McGonagall to let me kick someone off the Slytherin team, you heard that much.'

'Are you going to say who?' I asked him. He was looking at me curiously and I was positive it wasn't at what I said but at my whole manner. I felt sad, dull, frustrated and maybe it came across to him that I didn't actually care very much even though I was asking.

'No. But aren't you friends with Martins?' he asked me.

I nodded. 'So?'

'He's Quidditch captain too, it wouldn't be good for him to know that there's already something wrong with our team; it might give him an edge,' he said without smiling.

'God, sometimes I hate Quidditch,' I muttered, and then with a very direct look, I said, 'I won't tell him a thing, and I won't tell you a thing about our team.'

'Fair enough,' he said, although now he was smiling.

'I still want Gryffindor to win,' I said. 'Or, I still want you to lose.'

'Funny how you can say the same thing two different ways and each comes across so differently,' Hunter said. 'Come on, I'll walk you back to your class. Where are you headed?'

'To the Dungeons, my potions probably ruined by now, I had to get Henry Burton to look after it,' I sighed, and I would've been more annoyed but that was the least of my problems now.

'Isn't that the guy who's asked you out every Hogsmeade trip?' He asked.

I nodded, 'how do you know about that?'

I looked over to see him just shrug like it didn't really matter at all. We made our way down to the staircase and I was about to head down when he gently grabbed my arm and with a small grin he said, 'don't go that way, I know a short cut.'

I was startled at his touch and even though he let go as soon as he had my attention I still felt where his hand had been. I looked at his hands and saw that they were rather big and then my eyes crept up to his arms where he had rolled up his sleeve, his robes hanging over his arm. His arms were lightly tanned, it looked completely natural, it looked sun kissed and I could see the muscles that were so obviously there even though they were usually hidden by his cloak.

I swallowed, and fought back the desire to run my hand over his arm and tried to look at him without being distracted by his grey eyes. For some reason I couldn't think, but I managed to get across what I wanted.

'No offence, but I kind of want to go the long way, not the short way,' I told him.

Hunter smiled, and he peered over the edge of the great staircase. 'Like spending time with me, then?' he asked playfully.

I gave a small smile, 'Better you than Henry Burton.'

The corner of his mouth went up further, 'better me than McGonagall?'

'Actually,' I said, moving down the staircase, him behind me. 'I want to ask her some things that I'm just burning to know, so maybe not.'

He was beside me now, and our arms were almost touching. I breathed in that woody scent, the smell of Christmas trees, which was him. 'Is that what you were talking about with her?'

'Kind of, but she doesn't know anything so I'd have to be clever about it.' This was the closest I had ever got to admitting that I had some kind of secret.

'Matilda?' he asked.

We stopped just at the bottom of the staircase. Hunter looked intently in my eyes that I felt weak in the stomach. 'Is it something that someone else should know?' He asked.

'That might help,' I said.

'I know what you're thinking,' he said.

'What?'

'That it might not help too.'

I stared at him for a moment at an obvious loss for words, so I just carried on to Potions. I still had another period to go as well as the last twenty minutes of this one but I knew that if Henry had ruined my potion I wouldn't be doing anything for the rest of my time there and that I'd have nothing to distract me.

Hunter walked behind me and I knew he was watching me. It made the hairs of my neck stand on end knowing that and I wondered what he thought about me, why he even talked to me. I seriously wanted to know, I had made it clear that I wasn't going to talk to him about Quidditch and after that he said that he'd walk me to my class.

There was silence, except for the noises our feet made against the floor, in some areas it was soft because of the carpet but then as soon as we went past the Entrance hall the sounds of our footsteps echoed around the walls because apart from the two of us, it was just so empty.

About two corridors away from the classroom, I turned around suddenly, and Hunter came to an abrupt stop with his face inches away from mine. He looked a bit startled, but then he soon composed himself but he couldn't seem to bring himself to smile. I was quite tall and my head came up to his nose, but with him looking down and me looking up at him at his grey eyes, it was closer than was comfortable. But I didn't want to go away, I wanted to go closer. I looked down, not embarrassed, I had too much on my plate to fit embarrassed too.

Once I was away from the spell of his eyes I could think a bit clearer and we both stepped back so that there was about five feet between us.

'What did you want to say?' he asked.

'I wanted to know why you're talking to me,' I said. I didn't try to hide it with any fluff like others might.

'I just wanted to,' Hunter said simply. 'Don't you want me to?'

'I don't know. It just makes everything complicated,' I said.

'Being friends with me?' He didn't hide that fact that he didn't like what I was saying and I respected him for that. I _liked_ honesty even though my whole life was a lie. Everything was easier when you just told the truth.

'Is it because I'm in Slytherin?' he asked, 'or more than that, because I'm the captain of the Quidditch team and your best friend is captain for Gryffindor? Or because I know that you're hiding something from your teachers and probably your friends?'

'No, it's not because you're in Slytherin, I don't care about that. But the other reasons are right on the dot.' I said. He seemed surprised that I admitted that.

'Let's figure things out later,' Hunter said with a sigh. 'At the moment you're-'

'Yeah, I'm in a bit of a mood.'

He had to smile. 'I'll say hi to you when it's only you, is that okay?'

I nodded, and turned to head off to class feeling a little bit better. How could he have made me feel a little bit better? I paused before I opened the classroom door, resting my forehead against the wood. There was another reason on top of the ones that he mentioned, that made things so complicated. I fancied him a bit too much.


End file.
